While this hardly leaps out as the tales most eye-catching detail, I had no idea that there were still finishing schools in Switzerland; or that, even if there were, male students attend them.

More than a century earlier, in the second quarter of the 12th century, a remarkable stone carving, depicting the meeting of St Antony and the desert creature, was made for the church of St Paul de Varax, 30 miles north-east of Lyon. It is a powerful piece of art.

With a full CeMAP/equivalent professional qualification, or commitment to attaining it by April 2014, you'll need a proven, substantial track record in a customer-centric, financial services sales role, with a strong focus on mortgages, in which you've driven sales through third party distributors whilst achieving challenging sales and quality targets. Your robust commercial awareness with complement in-depth knowledge of UK retail banking, financial services and the competition, underpinned by excellent relationship management, communication and influencing skills. You'll also bring:

The American Pie actress shot to fame playing Kevin's girlfriend Vicky in the hit teen comedy. A former child star, she failed to build on the multimillion- dollar success of American Pie and appeared in a series of flops and straight-to-video movies but she has a role in The Big Lebowski on her CV. Now chiefly known for a Playboy shoot her high-profile party lifestyle and some botched plastic surgery kept her in the headlines but left her, in her words, looking like she had been "butchered". Only last week she announced she was engaged and then married to a businessman, Zack Kehayov, after a ceremony in Greece.

Reduced from his normal 5ft 10in to about 3ft, his real legs hidden behind a black cloak, Harman wasted no comic opportunity, offering the world a new, shorter-limbed version of the funny walk.