"She was the classical picture of an ancient bovine; as fleshless as her owner, with jutting pelvic bones, splayed, overgrown feet and horns with a multitude of rings along their curving length. Beneath her, the udder, once high and tight, drooped forlornly almost to the floor. She resembled her owner, too, in her quiet, patient demeanour." Chap. 1, p. 4

"'Aye, ye'll think I'm daft, but that's how it is. T'awd lass has come 'ome and she's stoppin' 'ome.'" Chap. 1, p. 8

"'Aye,' the old man went on sadly. 'I 'have no sense of smell.'" Chap. 4, p. 40

"'There's t'young vitnery coming out of his house. Not long married, too. That's his missus next to him.'" Chap. 5, p. 43

"But when you known without a shadow of doubt that, even without doing anything clever, you have pulled an animal back from the brink of death into the living, breathing...