Well, you certainly are the most wonderfully woolly baa-lamb that ever stepped.

It was one of those parties where you cough twice before you speak and then decide not to say it after all.

My motto is 'Love and let love' - with the one stipulation that people who love in glass-houses should breathe on the windows.

What I'm worrying about is what Tom is going to say when he starts talking." "Uncle Tom?" "I wish there was something else you could call him except 'Uncle Tom,' " Aunt Dahlia said a little testily. "Every time you do it, I expect to see him turn black and start playing the banjo.

She's one of those soppy girls, riddled from head to foot with whimsy. She holds the view that the stars are God's daisy chain, that rabbits are gnomes in attendance on the Fairy Queen, and that every time a fairy blows its wee nose a baby is born, which, as we know, is not the case. She's a drooper.

It looked something like a pen wiper and something like a piece of hearth-rug. A second and keener inspection revealed it as a Pekinese puppy.

It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.