Northern lights

There are many websites offering pretty if slightly boring pictures of auroras and a few with gloating details of the Aurora’s aborted round-the-world luxury cruise.

But actually there is no reason for schadenfreude, since the passengers really did rather well out of it and it’s not surprising that few of them complained.

They will get their money back with a credit of 25% on top, and have had eleven days of what P G Wodehouse called excellent browsing and sluicing (16,626 bottles of wine, 1,246 bottles of spirits, 9,800 cocktails…).

But it wasn't all fun: the downside was that when they weren’t boozing or looking at the view of the Isle of Wight they were subjected to “a full programme of events” including entertainment from Jimmy Tarbuck, Paul Daniels and Elaine Paige, excursions to Portsmouth and “personal briefings by the managing director David Dingle, who climbed aboard twice every day to relay the latest news”.