After getting bored with the rest of the Sunday papers, we've become Observer readers. I like its physical size and it has consistently good reports from foreign parts by among others Jason Burke. The arts and books coverage is also excellent, with even a sympathetic profile the week before last of my friend Andrew Roberts.

It is quite shocking to learn that the Guardian group are thinking of converting the Observer into a weekly magazine, or worse, selling the paper off. I didn't know that it is Britain's oldest Sunday paper, going back to the 1790s. Shame!