***

Let me take you back, and take myself back too. (What good is it if I take you back and leave myself here? Who then will tell you the dark tale?)

***

From Crown Witness, by Gillian Linscott:

***

He stood out from the crowd as he always did, more than six feet tall and as thin as a column in a ledger, always looking slightly baffled to find himself wherever he happened to be, as if he'd started the day in ancient Athens then found himself by some inexplicable accident elsewhere in time and place.

***

Like most of the rest of the men he was bearded, although in his case it was more like the fringe on a mantelpiece, looking as if it were in danger of losing its grip on his pink and shiny face.

***

From The Balmoral Nude, by Carolyn Coker:

"For the past two years I have been up to my handsome (if I do say so myself) Harold Macmillan mustache in evidence."