It was then put into a large basket and carried down to the harbour, where a Venetian ship was waiting. By this time the odour of sanctity that issued from the body was becoming so strong that, in the words of one chronicler, ‘If all the spices of the world had been gathered together in Alexandria, they could not have so perfumed the city.’

Then he found them, the substances that made up the four-letter alphabet in whose language all life is written — adenine and cytosine, guanine and thymine.

Later, about 75 years ago, Ralph's grandfather built waterbreaks on his farm, which are the nearest things to broad-base terraces you can imagine.

He is a dingy duck who would assume swanship, a crow who would strut as a peacock, an alley cat who would pass himself off as a lion. Imagining himself gifted above all of us perfected craftsmen, he has the effrontery to range ...