“...Then he takes a one-way ticket, seduces the customs girl in vain and, after impatient hours, lands in that amazing province, warmed under the Lord’s arm, in Marienbad, Portsmouth, Winchester, even Guildford - where the streets look like little rooms, where if they are in a hurry, then only to the pub for the evening lager; in a miniature tea shop, among the flickering of bottles, there is a crazy sad and delicious smell of lost life, and Miss Christina Toner is trying on a lace Victorian hat on the occasion of someone else’s wedding...”