Wasn’t that too many, wasn’t he spreading himself too thin? “No, no, no,” he says cheerily “I’ve lost count of the number of restaurants I’ve opened The more you do, the easier it is. I’m good at spotting managers and chefs, attractive girls for front of house. I love the business side, doing good deals, marketing, spotting trends.”It may be the end of this empire, but not the emperor. When he spotted the trend of cuisine grand’mere (he actually “spotted” it on a visit to Paul Bocuse’s restaurant near Lyons) his friend, restaurant critic Fay Maschler wrote dryly, “He has seen the lentil” Worrall Thompson chuckles, “That’s right. I have my finger on the pulse”Thomas Sutcliffe returns next week..

Early visions of happiness: lying face-down on a lumpy bed, with the West Highland rain blattering down on the roof and the first of a large pile of holiday books open on the pillow. They would be, in the early years, Enid Blyton or Biggles, or Just William, in red cloth editions from the Thirties and Forties, smelling faintly of must and Empire; then Henry Treece’s Viking stories, in a smart cardboard box-set, or Rosemary Sutcliffe, or the Narnia books, with their haunting drawings. Later, they were followed by Walter Scott and Nigel Tranter, thrillers and comics… Wet summer days were when I fell hopelessly in love with a drug more addictive and mind-changing than anything that can be smoked or swallowed – to reading, reading, reading. I still can’t sleep without taking a few neat pages of something first; feel naked if I leave the house without a book hidden in a pocket or bag; and experience panic attacks if I’m caught in a station that lacks a proper bookstore, or if I’m staying in a town with a third-rate bookshop.

Yesterday’s interim results, showing pre- tax profits up 23 per cent to pounds 23.7m in the six months to November, were more than respectable, despite some disappointment with the 10 per cent growth in sales to pounds 143m.
Admittedly Misys is no Microsoft. Misys, Britain’s biggest home-grown software group, was floated nearly 10 years ago, but it was only two years back that investors really woke up to the group’s potential. The shares, down 4p at 1112.5p yesterday, have multiplied 3.5 times since March 1995, boosted in part by US buying The big question is how far this rerating still has to run. On analysts’ profit forecasts of pounds 125m this year and pounds 145m next the shares trade on a forward rating of 15 falling to 13 A good hold, but not worth chasing.. The group is losing market share to Woolworths and the supermarkets. Like-for- like sales fell by 2 per cent compared to double-digit growth at HMV. And the group turned last year’s first-half profit into a pounds 1.4m loss this time.The company blames lack of blockbuster new releases but this is only part of the problem.