The old volcanistic metaphor is especially apt: a thick, hard crust of earth, beneath which bubbles, hot liquid magma pressing for release above.

It is the policy of the organization to keep unused check supplies safeguarded under lock and key.

Now here I am, in my Ford Mondeo, having been abandoned by the theatre, eating a curry chip and going back to a B&B […]

She was a small, neat, rather prissy-looking girl with primly smooth brown hair and rimless glasses […]