Alan Gibbons

Misery is a routine you can learn to live with. It's like rain. Once you're soaked to the skin, you can't get any wetter.

Long gone was the cheery welcome of the seaside hotelier, replaced by a weary nostalgia for the good old days.

Anthony imagined a time before all that - a time when people sipped Earl Grey tea on a breeze cooled veranda and looked out upon endless countryside.