I'm the only Gabriel in the whole school, I told my father. "You don't have to whisper it from the tomb, lad. You should thank your mother and me for giving you a handle that people notice. You ought to be pleased, not down in the dumps. Backstreet Gabriels aren't bumped into on every corner, remember.

Every year Forbes magazine asks some of America's top stock pickers to name their single favorite equity for the upcoming 12 months.

On a square of grey silk lay several objects with a direct relationship to our brimming thoughts – the great hatpin with its ugly blue stone head, and the eburnine ring of my lover which I could not see even now without a pang.

The most common of these amulets was the agnus dei, a small wax cake, originally made out of paschal candles and blessed by the Pope, bearing the image of the lamb and flag.