Tora (Kiyoshi Atsumi), our feckless itinerant peddler, dreams he's leading his relatives in a pursuit of the bluebird of happiness, which takes them to a veritable Shangri-La.

There were other types of looms for producing various specialised types of cloth, for example fustians and velvets, but there is not space here to discuss these.

From Zimmer’s Batman scores, via the many knockoffs for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to Marco Beltrami’s score for World War Z, the main ingredients — churning strings hectically repeating the same four- or five-note motif, with a BRAAAM dropping every so often — are both pulse-quickening and exhausting.

This was blithe news; for really we were wearied with going about, and hearing yon Sicilians chatter in a tongue that was as unmeaning as a dog's youff.