While your correspondent is used to empty threats – 'we'll sue if you print this', 'you're fired if you do that' – The Diary was this week excited and only slightly unnerved to receive its very first death threate and from a City partner, to boot.

After charming said partner into spilling the beans about a particularly top-secret spat of internal politicking, your correspondent was slightly surprised to later receive an email threatening dark consequences if the news became public.

The email, unambiguously titled 'Sleeping with the fishes', explained how The Diary would be thrown off Blackfriars Bridge with lead weights tied round its ankles if any of the conversation were to appear in these hallowed pages.