Monday
Midway through the afternoon, Buckingham Palace informed all news organisations that a major royal story would be dropping at 6pm. The advance warning was to give everyone time to prepare. On the dot of six came the news that the king had cancer. It had been detected during his prostate treatment but was unrelated to it. The king was in good spirits and would start treatment very shortly. In the meantime he would cancel his public appearances but would attend to matters of state. That, you would have thought, just about covered it. Everything that needed to be said had been said. We could give the king some space to recover at home with his family.
