The only thing that prevented a father's love from faltering was the fact that there was in his possession a photograph of himself at the same early age, in which he, too, looked like a homicidal fried egg.

"After all, golf is only a game", said Millicent. Women say these things without thinking. It does not mean that there is any kink in their character. They simply don't realise what they are saying.

He groaned slightly and winced like Prometheus watching his vulture dropping in for lunch.

His eyes were rolling in their sockets, and his face had taken on the colour and expression of a devout tomato. I could see he loved like a thousand bricks.

A lesser moustache, under the impact of that quick, agonised expulsion of breath, would have worked loose at the roots.

There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.

Just another proof, of course, of what I often say - it takes all sorts to make a world.