Much to my astonishment, ‘Tulip Fever’ is apparently coming to cinemas on 7 December. This whole twenty-year-old saga (see previous postings) might be coming to an end at last. It has been both bizarre and gruelling, to say the least, but now you might actually be able to see the film, which really is rather great, and with the most amazing cast – Judi Dench, Alicia Vikander, Cara Delevigne, Tom Hollander, Christoph Walz and even me, playing my favourite part, an old crone drinking beer and smoking a clay pipe. So do go, if it comes to a cinema near you. The ghastly Weinstein scandal nearly scuppered it, but it’s actually very beautiful, and takes us right into 17th century Amsterdam, as if we’re walking into a Vermeer painting.

It’s been …