“I like the city late at night, the blasts of music and the splashes of light cast from bars that are still open, shoals of brightly-dressed clubber, the beeping taxis and the greasy, savoury smell of meat and onions from the burger vans.”

“We kiss. Her hands are freezing on my face, and she tastes like coffee and the smell of the onion is still stuck in my nose, and my lips are all dry from the endless winter. And it's awesome.”

“Another dawn flung itself across the river; a belated taxi hurried along the street, its lamps still shining like burning eyes in a face white from a nights' carouse.”

“It was the most beautiful night of their lives – their wedding night. The moon was full, splashing its bright silver light all over and making the night shine, with a magical canopy of stars sprayed against a velvety sky.”

“I know what death smells like. Death smells like gasoline, singed hair and fingernails.It smells like cooking meat. My meat.”

“So we'll go no more a-roving so late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, and the moon be still as bright.”