I once remarked on the striking similarity between myself and Sherlock Holmes. I also bear an uncanny resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci.

Leo had a tendency to get terribly excited about each new idea, right up until the next one came along, at which point the previous project would be abandoned and never completed. He always meant to go back and finish them off - in his later years he could often be found wandering through the streets of Florence muttering “I really must give her some eyebrows” - but it never happened.

I’m not quite as bad as he was - my undertakings are generally completed in the end, but they’re frequently put on the backburner for such long periods that when I remove them there’s a dark patch where the sunlight couldn’t fade the wallpaper. Let us take, as an example, the phenomenon that is PuzzleDonkey. At the launch of PD3, my spare time had been occupied almost entirely by donkeys for the last six months, and I felt I was due a break. It’s nice to have something so successful, but one can’t devote one’s entire life to a single idea. Rod Hull seemed to manage it, but look what happened to him. Variety is key to happiness and prosperity, and it was around that time I had the idea of making a movie, so I switched my brain from puzzle writing mode to film writing mode. For the next couple of months, the number of puzzles that got written was approximately zero.

Of late this was beginning to concern me, for the peasants were clamouring for PD4 and at this rate it wouldn’t be ready until 2058. To speed the process up, el10t suggested we draw Bean into our inner circle, he having made many excellent contributions in the past. This seemed like a grand scheme and I gave it the thumbs up.

I then went away for a cruise on the QM2, and when I got home Bean had written about eighteen zillion puzzles. It would seem that PD4 might not be too much delayed after all.

Now all I need to do is draw the donkeys…