On their walls, the courtier celebrated his life, from hunting in the marshes to listening to his daughter play the harp.

BBC: The perfect trip: Egypt

The consumer may be king, but how can a manufacturer best serve him if the courtier distribution networks control access to him?

ECONOMIST: Monetary devolution

It was not politic of him to liken Peter Mandelson, the prime minister's upwardly mobile courtier, to a crab.

ECONOMIST: John Prescott��s calming influence

"Everyone got carried away in 2009 and the prices haven't come down, " says one courtier, who wished to remain unnamed.

WSJ: Will Lyons on Wine: Unveiling Bordeaux's New Vintage

As one Matignon courtier points out, Mr Blair's modernising of the left was made possible by the right-wing radicalism of the Thatcher era.

ECONOMIST: Lionel Jospin, France’s would-be president | The