Clearing up my emails, phone calls, paperwork etc. – and trying to make sure Christmas happens. I ran to Highgate Village this morning to the local bookshop – always a very good choice of books despite being tiny.

Suddenly the police arrived, put handcuffs on another browser – a young man – and marched him out. One of the policemen came back in the shop to say they had nicked the chap. The staff (two women) had seen a knife sticking out of his back pocket and he had been ‘browsing’ for about 40 minutes. Rather than tackle him directly they had called the police – quite rightly – but now one of them was saying she felt bad.

At which point the policeman outside yelled that they had found another knife in his rucksack. I told the staff they had done really well, and one of them said how quickly the police had come – within five minutes. The thinking was that the guy was waiting for the shop to empty so that he could then perhaps hold up the two young women. If so – foiled – thank goodness.

Anyway – I just wanted to put up a good news story – as we often forget – what a fantastic job the police do for the vast majority of the time. And when you spend your time looking for flaws in performance – it is really great to have the opportunity to put up a good news story. Well done both police and shop staff. And I bought 7 books!