As one looks across the barren stretches of the pack, it is sometimes difficult to realise what teeming life exists immediately beneath its surface.

It looks a little bit browner although there is still moisture beneath the surface. I do like going into a Test match with a spinner, to be honest, because it gives you greater options. But conditions must allow for that.

We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.

Hunger and fear are the only realities in dog life: an empty stomach makes a fierce dog.

Let’s hope she’s like the others, who look only at the surface. Let’s hope she’d never think that a girl with black-velvet eyes and cut-glass cheekbones could be a witch.

Slowly but surely the sea is freezing over.