Dear friend,

Like an enormous game of reinsurance Pokemon, the pre-Monte Carlo machine has roared into life once again.

Everywhere phone lines hum to the tone of conversations that run a little like this:

“I’ll swap my 10am Richard Ward for your 3pm Grahame Chilton”

“I’m jolly well not meeting at the Café de Paris again — can’t we meet somewhere else?”

“…I’ll be the one wearing a pink polo shirt and chinos…”

“Give me you cellphone, just in case.”

“Where shall we have dinner this year?”

“By the way, what do you look like? I’ll email you a picture.”

Ah, Monte, Monte, Monte…

Bring plenty of notepads — I can feel a lot of new layers coming on — especially lower attaching ones. It’s also time to sharpen up the old underwriting pencils and protect your share on the good stuff. It’s probably best to get your discounts in early before some other bounder does.

Oh, and pack some binoculars and an umbrella— the former may come in handy in your search for income and you never know when you’re going to need the latter (and you probably can’t buy a brolly for less than €200 within a kilometre radius of Casino Square!)

Speak soon, it’s back to horse-trading for me.