"Sam was not a religious man but said that if he were ever to be persuaded, it would be down to the actions of HMS Fiji's Pastor that night who swam around to offer solace to many of those in the water. He probably knew he would not survive, having already seen many of his ship-mates slip away. He was one of the 250 crew who drowned. His was surely an example of a truly selfless act."

"You can guess what happened next. It was always going to happen no matter how much walking, trotting or cantering we were going to do. Yes, as our trail of horses crossed the runway, we could hear and see the Comet approaching fast on our left. It came right over us at a height of about 50 feet, jet engines screaming, its vast body like some alien spaceship dragging its shadow along the ground at fearsome speed."

"It invokes something chilling and prehistoric. I quite expected to see flocks of Compsognathus scampering around in the dirt between the slender trunks. Birds, dinosaurs of course, fluttered around in those dark woods - we saw jays and heard woodpeckers, their flashes of colour, chit-chatterings, twitterings and hammerings echoing through the canopy."

"At the same time Doctor Alex, my neighbour and local GP from 1988 onward, chose to poke his head through the hedge to see what I was up to. 'Hi Pete', he said to the back of my head, just a few feet distant, failing to notice the straps that held the gas mask in place."