This is agony! I have just had a sneak preview of a secret that is going to blow everyone away next month, and I can't tell you what it is.
For a journalist, this is a subtle form of torture. We want to tell people exciting and interesting things that they don't already know. It's how we make our living, but more than that, it's our passion - the buzz that drives us on.

You will have read in our website, or in our newspaper, about La Machine, the French company who have been commissioned to produce a spectacular outdoor public event in Liverpool next month. Vicky Anderson, our arts correspondent, has been behind the scenes at their current secret Wirral base a couple of times recently to see it all take shape, and also went out to visit the company at their base in Nantes.
Today, I got invited over to take a look for myself by those lovely people from production company Artichoke. I saw for myself "La Princess", the mystery creature that will soon be causing quite a stir as it roams the streets of Liverpool. It is deeply impressive.
(The lunch was a bit of a bonus, too. Meeting in a big old industrial building for lunch? Curly sandwiches and a flask of coffee was my guess. But no, this is a French artistic company. The food - and I'm talking lavish salads, beef bourguignon, a wonderful cassoulet - was to die for. If you could get tables at this place, they would be queueing round the block!)
Anyway, the great reveal comes on Friday, September 5. It will be a moment of fantastic theatre - as long as nobody blabs and spoils the moment.
The other day a picture grabbed by an enterprising amateur photographer came in to us, and for a moment our hearts sank. It was a great piece of initiative by the photographer in question to get this picture, of La Princess in rehearsal. But if it was published, it would ruin the surprise for thousands of people. I rang him up, and I'm pleased to say he was a good guy who got the point immediately and promised the secret was as safe with him as it has been with us, and our friends in the rest of the local media like the BBC, Radio City, Granada TV and our own sister paper the Liverpool Echo. We all want this to be great, and that is why we are not going to be the ones to spoil the big surprise.
In the unlikely event that you happen to stumble across the big secret, I'd urge you to keep it too.
But one thing I can tell you. Ring Friday September 5 to Sunday September 7 in your diary, and be ready to come to Liverpool, and bring your kids. It will be special.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit