A pessimist, someone explained to me the other day, is just an optimist in possession of the full facts. There’s something pleasingly self-referential about such a gloomy viewpoint. Anyway, those words came back to me this morning, when I got back from my run to find I’d done my 3½ miles in record time. This in turn produced another record: the smiliest breakfast since Arthur Miller poured his post-nuptial cornflakes in the summer of 1956.… READ MORE.... …