FEW CAN MATCH Shena Mackav when it comes to mordant comic observation. Witness the thoughts of the elderly idealist Celeste Zylberstein, founder member of the Thirties Nautilus community, as she contemplates present-day England:

... what depresses her most is that the issues which really bring people on the streets are their right to kill small animals, hit their children, buy cheap petrol, and eat beef on the bone. Oh but the chickens are coming home to roost.

(Only Shena Mackay could make that sly