It didn’t rain that day, and the sky was blue, the snow was scarce, and the people were all wrapped in flags and hats that shone with colours. After the …

In later years, he’d recall a lurid halo in the sky as the setting sun suffused the clouds and looming trees with lavender. His dog barked briefly to announce a …

We are sitting at a sidewalk table in the stream of tourists. They are tanned or burnt and have the slow swagger of people on holiday, the slap of flip-flops. …