Pity the poor stockbrokers of Hong Kong. At 50 hours, the territory has one of the longest average working weeks in the world.

To a gala dinner celebrating the 80th anniversary of the famed Foyles literary luncheon, where I learnt a thing or two about the perils of book signing (which, naturally, I'm filing away for future reference). "The worst thing about being an author," a tired and emotional Tara Palmer-Tompkinson assured me as she arrived, "is having such a bloody long name. My book signings take ages!"

The newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky is to leave Five in December, the channel announced yesterday, bringing to an end the multimillion-pound deal which made her Britain's highest-paid current-affairs presenter.

Richard Desmond, the new owner of Channel 5, suffered a slump in earnings last year, partly resulting from his decision to spend tens of millions of pounds on a newspaper price war.

The courage and sacrifice of those who fought off the Nazis to win the Battle of Britain was remembered today.

The preparations for Tony Blair's book signing at Waterstone's Piccadilly sounded a tad over the top when they were announced yesterday morning. The former PM will sign copies of his memoir, A Journey, on 8 September, reported The Bookseller. However: "Customers cannot be photographed with Blair, there will be no personal dedications and all bags, backpacks and briefcases must be checked in, along with cameras and mobile phones... Blair will sign a maximum of two books per customer." The security rigmarole seemed slightly more salient by the afternoon, however, when the Stop The War Coalition set up a Facebook page calling on its members to stage a "mass protest" at the event, and announced plans to arrest Blair for alleged war crimes. "We will be asking people to boycott Waterstone's completely and shut the chain of shops down if this event goes ahead," warned activist Andrew Burgin. Mr Burgin also works as a second-hand bookseller, but far be it from me to suggest he might have an ulterior motive.

The internet is supposed to be the great engine of democratic expression. It has broken the old stranglehold of the Press and enables everyone to have a say. Anybody with a view, and the ability to put it into words, can become a blogger, or post comments in response to an article or blog.