The Late Train to Gipsy HillGary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He's never dared to strike up a conversation but maybe one day. Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words 'HELP ME' scrawled in sticky

deadly turn

From the volcanoes that stained it

as they embarked on a two-year

Their crushing coils and their treasure hoards are found throughout literature and language: in the Old English of Beowulf

Whether comfort reads or cult novels

a night when all things can come to life - even toys

Sometimes only a poem will do

There are also the dangers of passing barges

Jenkins takes in leaders from Julius Caesar and Joan of Arc

stoical moustaches and aerial heroics

the grip of the past and the struggle to be new again

history - that is full of contemporary relevance: religious violence