(extract) “William Blake, cranky poet-prophet of the 18th century, gave his character Los the line: “I must create a system or be enslav’d by another man’s.” Blake was never one for understatement – this is the man who saw angels in trees and Satan lurking in the Enlightenment’s obsession with Reason."

(extract) “So what do we do with all this feathered misery? Learn from it. Poignancy often arrives sideways. Not from the expected heroics of the powerful, but from the unexpected courage of the powerless. A child offering comfort when adults fail. A servant acting where kings dither. A bird tugging thorns from a savior’s brow."

(extract) “But what happens when she steps outside with her drink to “call her mother, I’ll be back in a few”, leaving him at the bar… and some cute girl approaches him?”