All holy piety in public, and all peeled grapes and self-indulgence in private.

Fantasy is uni-age. You can start it in the creche, and it follows you to death.

This is Morbidia," said Vlad. "Although she's been calling herself Tracy lately, to be cool.

Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

You can't kill me, I've got a magic... AAAARGH !

Fate can be one mean god at times.

But, in truth, it had not exactly been gold, or even the promise of gold, but more like the fantasy of gold, the fairy dream that the gold is there, at the end of the rainbow, and will continue to be there forever - provided, naturally, that you don't go and look. This is known as finance.