"Tony Whitworth's convulsing body lay there. What was once his face was now a broken, crushed mass of blood and grey matter" (The Shooter, p. 7).

"You could lacerate yourself badly on her nose, cheekbones and jawline" (Stoke Newington Blues, p. 33).

"A human head, disembodied, decapitated. Moreover, the head seemed alive" (Vat '96, p. 43).

"Ah wanted tae check her fanny, tae se if ah could tell that she'd been shagged" (A Soft Touch, p. 48).

"Two Sperryheids sit at a table in a public house talking shite about the football. The Sperryheids are almost indistinguishable from each other with their soft brown feathery heads, open, tense, belligerent beaks and slimy liquorice eyes" (Wayne Foster, p. 82).

"God looked Boab in the eye. He seemed upset" (The Granton Star Cause, p. 129).

"He took stock of his situation: Coco Bryce, tripping alone in the park at roughly three o'clock in the morning, lightning...