City Diary, by Martin Waller

“A former colleague from this paper is in touch. Rodney Hobson has written Shares Made Simple, which is off to the printers this week for publication in November. Brilliant timing, what with the markets as they are. There must be a few punters who wish they had kept their money under the mattress. Hobson disagrees. The publishing date is “just in time to catch the Footsie topping 7,000 points”, he says. I donâ??t remember you being quite so optimistic, I say. “Just my little joke, but wouldnâ??t it be lovely if 7,000 really happened at the right moment?” Dream on.”