Wally never broods about anything, says his wife, Jo, and his casual, unbrooding approach has seen some of the tenser astronauts through a few of the more anxious moments in the three years of Project Mercury's existence.

Muga (from the Antheroea Assama moth) silk was produced in Assam; the muga silkworm fed on a tree known as champa.

the prickle of horripilation which arpeggioed my spine as I came barrelling down the hill from that ghost house

What I mean is that there are structures in all this tumult, as there are in all human dealings. Certain classes of celebrity count as peltable; the international rich are not, and they, as I have so frequently said in these pages, are the worst menace […]