In some studios the telescopes are fixed to the lighting grid […]

The photograph caused a stir last week because it was shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery’s prestigious Taylor Wessing prize, despite the rule that “all photographs must have been taken by the entrant from life and with a living sitter”. However realistic Erica may be, and to me she looks more like a sex doll than a real person, she was certainly not a living sitter.

He remembered the summer evening he had been there to be dressed as a boatbearer, the evening of the procession to the little altar in the wood. Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 47

Gong-scourers were paid to go into these cesspits and scoop out the mess, which came in two layers: squidged-together solid goo at the bottom, and foul yellowy-brown liquid on top.