THERE'S NO JUSTICE, said Mort. JUST US.

I don't think I've drunk enough beer to understand that.

Look, he said to his imagination, if this is how you're going to behave, I shan't bring you again.

Previous generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old.

People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.

When she spoke again it was in the thin, careful and above all brave voice of someone who has pulled themselves together despite overwhelming odds but might let go again at any moment.

She was a beefy young woman and, whatever piece of music she was playing, it was definitely losing.