With news breaking tonight that the UK’s Brexit transition may be extended by a year, Mrs May appears to have taken a leaf from Scheherazade and her miraculous myths, tales and legends of the one thousand and one Arabian Nights.
Like Scheherazade, Mrs May appears to be fending off a grim schedule by keeping her intriguing tales from ever reaching a timeous end; "she always stops in an exciting place".
Indeed the enticement of what lies behind a closed door that tempts Salem, one of the characters in Sheherazade’s story-telling, seems also to have an equivalent in the ambition of a certain ex-Foreign Secretary to see for himself just what lies behind a certain door.
He should read the story of Salem who was also tempted to see what lay behind the door.