“In the centre of the square, under the American flag, a loose halyard slapped the pole, out of rhythm with the swirling wind. The gritty snow, sharp as sand, had

“Truman wills himself awake, peacock-plume eyed, empty champagne bottle in his lap.  He squints toward the open door, where the chauffeur stands with the sun at his back, features obscured,

“11.00pm glides on oil into midnight and 12.30 am, until Tolly finally finds the courage to leave her sanctuary. She makes her way to the service elevator. Her finger hovers

“The Prime Minister’s posture looks relaxed, but if you look closely he still has the slight twitching of muscles, emblematic of months without enough sleep, and time zone confusions from

“Day after day, GM, the Great Wall lent me its ramparts in the grand setting of the YanShan mountains. I had no need to know where I was going or

“She had been the centre of his life for many years but now she did not exist. At first he had been convinced that they were made for each other,

““I’ll get straight to the point”, said Dr. Mangan who proceeded to do no such thing. He explained that the software that had processed Dweem’s original test results had proved

““Sorry! Sorry – am I late?” The clock on the wall wobbles because the door’s flung open so hard. A girl stands in the doorway and I’m a cartoon figure,

“She asked about life in Berlin before the fall of the Wall and he told her how in the 1970’s when he first came there to avoid being drafted into

“Studies show that fathers experience the same physiological response to a baby’s crying as mothers do. It is nearness to a baby that releases knowledge of what to do. A

“You’re writin your name now I see? Well good on ya. That’s all a man needs to sign his life away ha. But really it’s good. I was twice your

“Ever since writing my first callow lyrics aged 14, I’d been striving to develop as a songwriter, learning different instruments, mastering the studio (we recorded and rehearsed day and night

“My birth was hailed not by a single star, but by many bright lights that burned briefly in the night sky before falling to earth. The invasion of the Russian

“Eli wrote every week from the Western Front, until his letters stopped arriving two months ago. His letters dry. His strong handwriting reminds her of his warm presence. Mary’s letters,

“I marvelled at the vastness and flatness and emptiness of the parched red desert floor, the huge void of silence, suspended primordial time; the east–west highway that ran straight for

“I turned about the room, toe to toe, making the smallest circle. What I wanted was not there. His clock, his papers, his quill glass – emptied, cleared, gone. I

“What I find interesting, he says, is that your clothing is all white, like everything we see around us. Even your shoes are white. I thought they were more off-white,

“Now the crowd was in control. Everyone clamoured to hit somewhere, anywhere but the head. A kid pushed through the throng, managed to land a kick on Kamu’s butt and

“Celia, on the other side of town, is kissing the tiny, sweet brown moles which dot her lover’s chin like a constellation. It was a thoughtful play that her lover

“The glade was peculiarly dense around Vogel’s ungated entranceway. Pine, maple, and scrub oak fought for sky. The canopy of the driveway almost totally shut out the light. Only after