It's hard to articulate how tightly packed we have become accustomed to - … 'Move up, we need to get one more in.' The only picture I can paint is that it is often not possible to reach into my jacket pocket to retrieve my mobile phone, because I cannot raise my arms. Sardines enjoy more space.

Epic was invoked in this connection less frequently than the more monsterful genres of fairytale, romance, legend and myth.

A tall white-haired man, with a huge white moustache that curled up at the ends, opened the door. Hello, he boomed Swissly.

He secured a coffee potful of trout fry in the Big Arroyo country and clambered over some of the roughest land in the Sierra ranges.