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After the impact, the silence – cf Après nous le déluge (after us the deluge) attributed to Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), the mistress of Louis XV, who saw the signs of the French Revolution (1789) in the general discontent of the people.

Clive and John – named after Clive Treacher and John Farrow, traffic policeman whom I met at South Mimms Services, and from whom I elicited the police procedure for an occurrence such as this.

circumarboreal residents – those who lived in the vicinity of the Marby Oak (circum – around; arboreal – pertaining to a tree).

Déshabillé – the state of being partially or carelessly dressed.

22

his pyjamas protruded colourfully – as did those of Dr A V McMaster whom we summoned in the night when my grandfather died in his sleep (13 January 1948).

Lift her with care,

Fashioned so slenderly

Young, and so fair!

– from The Bridge of Sighs by Thomas Hood (1799–1845), English poet and punster.

HIAB – hydraulic lifting arm attached to a vehicle; the vehicle itself.