Declare

He recalled hearing of a temporary wartime petrol-storage tank in Kent that had been wired to ring a certain Army telephone number whenever its fuel level was too low;

In the end, for all of us, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria vanescere.”

postwar work in the Middle East had been,

paying on this house in the hills on the north side of the University College of Weybridge.

Magdalen College, Oxford

Sometimes on clear evenings he would simply hurry right past the house and on to the public house by the Bersham road, and come back hours later when the sky was safely overcast or he was temporarily too drunk to worry.

down the slushy streets and across the bridges of London, cursing the confusing new buildings and intersections.

Eventually he would cast

He didn’t resume his seat, but picked up his sheaf of handwritten test questions and stared at the ink lines.

Irrationally, it seemed odd to him that the tea should still be hot, after this