Got the impression the pug had a limited vocabulary. Probably expressed himself best with, on good days, a baseball bat, on bad ones, a crowbar. My bones twitched. Knees and shins especially. Wondered, would I be walking back this way again?Jean Cocteau said: ‘Life is a horizontal fall.’ Knew for sure mine was. But every fall had to be broken.We passed through what seemed like a never ending tunnel of richly carpeted corridors. Chandeliers sparkled above foot-high skirtings edged in gilt. It took serious wedge to put a look like this together. Hod runs a calculator in his head to these things, me, the impact’s personal. I want to chuck out the owner, give the place to the scores of families living in B&Bs up and down the country. I replayed the scene in Doctor Zhivago when the Reds take over the big house. The owners get forced into the attic … until it’s decided a few more families could live there too. That’s redistribution of wealth for you. Say you want a revolution?
