Chocolate and cream, the standard colours of G.W.R. rolling stock for 21 years, are now being replaced by an all-over utility coating of reddish-brown. This is the third time that a uniform brown has been adopted as the standard livery of G.W.R. carriages.

He had, back in Cambridge, taken one of Jem Follett’s boys for a penny, an envisioned Tom Walsingham in his head like a god and the motion towards irrumation like a prayer.

I went into his office and found him having it away with his secretary.

Thus, seamed with many scars, / Bursting these prison bars, / Up to its native stars / My soul ascended!