SAFE - Steve had a reputation for wildly reckless behaviour, so Miss Tompkins was not surprised to see that it was indeed Steve - white-faced and grimly hanging on with the tips of his fingers to the edge of the sloping roof - who had occasioned the panicked calls for help by the other boys staring up at what might at any moment turn into tragedy… if she couldn’t get the wretched miscreant down safely.

WATCHING - Stella was so annoyed by her boyfriend’s late and intoxicated arrival (due to having a few drinks with some chance-met school mates after work) that she spent the entire evening ignoring his drunken antics and inappropriate jokes.

FRAZZLED - Sasha Poplov had perfected his way with cocktails while working part-time during taking his First at Oxford, so he laughingly agreed to prepare some secret and delicious concoctions guaranteed to make exhausted guests invigorated.

BOTHER - Aunt Mabel took a plump jam-and-cream daubed scone from the plate and bit into it with pleasure, mumbling as she ate, “You’re such a comfort to me, dear - mmm, such excellent scones, [mumble mumble] [glff] tea?”

FIRM - Miss Oatsham regarded the ingratiating young man at her front door with a catechising expression, and told him, “My good fellow, I do not need my trees lopped, and I am in no danger of being fined by the council (of which I happen to be mayor), and even if I did need any tree lopping, I would be dealing only with my regular tree surgeon, not with a Johnnie-come-lately fly-by-night itinerant self-styled man-of-all-jobs who turns up at my front door!”