'Colin put back his comb and, seizing the nail clippers, bevelled the corners of his eggshell eyelids to add a touch of mystery to his appearance.'

'He emptied his bath by boring a hole in the bottom of the tub.'

'There's an eel - or there was an eel, rather - that used to go into his wash-basin every day through the cold-water tap.'

'And then he coughed because he had swallowed by mistake a hedgehog quill that was hidden in one of the delicacies.'

'A little pink cloud came down from the air and drew up close beside them.'

'She has a flower in her right lung.'

'But there only seems to be trout in my place.'

'It's a modified rabbit.' 'You just keep the bits you need. There, you see, he's kept the mechanism of the digestive system, but flung out the chemical part and the metabolism.'

'He walked along, looking down at his feet in their buffalo-hide shoes, and was suprised to see that one was trying to lead him one way, and the other in the opposite direction. He thought for a few moments, mentally bisected the angle the angle between the two and set off straight along the line thus produced.'

'A second flash followed, then a third, and he switched off the current just as a horrible insect, covered all over in legs, crept out of the motor.'

'One of the purifying sprays had stopped dead in the middle of the shed and stayed there.'

'There were twelve cold blue steel barrels - and, at the end of each, a beautiful white rose was in full bloom, with drops of dew and beige shadows in the curves of its velvety petals.'

'She opened her bag and whipped out Chick's heart-snatcher that she'd taken from the drawer in his desk several days previously. 'Would you mind undoing your collar?'

'The mouse opened the cat's jaw and placed its head between the sharp teeth.'