'I jumped out of bed to feel my stocking, well knowing that the worst had happened'.

Music: Trio Mio, 'Pigeon Scottish' from Stories Around a Holy Goat (2007); Barry Phillips, 'Nos Galan (Deck the Hall)' from Colonial Christmas (2008); Adrian Patrick Gebruers, 'Celtic Suite 2' from The Bells of Cobh (2007); The Jackson 5, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' from Jackson 5 Christmas Album (1970)

'The old sickness has me in its grip again: amnesia in litteris, the total loss of literary memory'.

Music: Erik Satie, Gnossiennes 1-6, performed by Reinbert de Leeuw

'I'm Death, and I make everyone equal'.

Music: Peter Gabriel, 'San Jacinto (Instrumental)' & 'Diggin in the Dirt (Instrumental)' from New Blood (2011) 

'A mouse, a bird and a sausage decided to set up home together...'

Music: Penguin Cafe Orchestra, 'Dirt' from Signs of Life (1987)

'It's just as dark down among the dead as it ever was.'

Music: Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata (1st mvt.) & Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, performed by Donghyuk Heo on modular synthesiser

'Alas', said the mouse, 'the world is getting smaller every day'.

Music: Bernard Herrmann,Psycho Suite[⁠Tippett Quartet⁠ ]

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'For we are like tree trunks in the snow...'

Music: Zoe Keating, 'Icefloe' from Snowmelt (2018)

'Alas', said the mouse, 'the world is getting smaller every day'.

Music: Bernard Herrmann, Psycho Suite [Tippett Quartet ]

'An angel, then!' I thought; 'it has been flying toward me all the day and in my disbelief I did not know it'.

Music: John Metcalfe & Matthew Barley, 'Tracing the Outline' & 'The Appearance of Colour' from Constant Filter (2010)

'What kind of people are these? Do they ever think, or do they just shuffle pointlessly over the earth?'

Music: Mouth Music, 'Whaling Ship', from Seafaring Man (2001)

'And what is the point of this continual being together anyhow?'

Music: (1) Leroy Anderson, Plink, Plank, Plunk (2) The Typewriter Orchestra Performs from Home