All Souls' Day was celebrated by souling, a custom going back to pre-Reformation days: soul cakers and mummers toured the village begging for a soul cake — a plain, round, flat cake seasoned with spices.

Martin of course is far too dishonest to be outright a crypto or fellow-traveller, but his main influence is pro-Russian and is certainly intended to be so, and I feel reasonably sure he would quislingise in the case of a Russian occupation, if he had not managed to get away on the last plane.

It can be immediately observed from these sentences that the English subject of a predication is translated in Japanese with a wa-phrase, while the subject of a nonpredicational description appears as a ga-phrase.

‘Your turn today, Lil,’ he said. ‘Fish and chips for me. No, wait, I′ll have savs, faggots and pease pudding.’