"He was old but still frisky when we first met. I ignored his dints and bruises and he ignored mine. It was love at first sight. I was living at Byron Bay then and after breaking my polio leg was forced to rely on crutches to get around, so I lost no time in mounting Oscar, whose only protests were a few tinny grumbles, but when I carefully headed him out through the gate towards the park he responded with alacrity."

"Towards the end of the century there appeared a rival — with a rival harp design. His name was Gustave Lyon, director of the Parisian piano manufacturing company Pleyel & Wolff. In 1894 Pleyel’s had received a patent on a “harpe chromatique”, and about five years later, with improvements designed by Lyon, the firm made it available to harpists."

"In the annals of detection, Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Hercule Poirot, Maigret, Father Brown and Miss Marple hold a permanent and honoured position. But the gentlest sleuth of all, the literary sleuth, is not even mentioned. Why, is a mystery!"