Stopped clocks

• In ‘Twentieth Century Tales’, the old man whose clock stopped at the moment he died [ FT417:47] reminded me of the 1876 song by Henry Clay Work, ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’. The first stanza ends:

It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,

And was always his treasure and pride;

But it stopp’d short – never to go again –

When the old man died.

• From the descriptions given of the Mumsnet Goatman [ FT417:5], I would suggest that it could be a kangaroo. These have sloping shoulders and wide hips, and due to the way they are ‘put together’, their legs appear relatively short. The head also looks kangaroo-like, and the original witness sketch appears to show a thick tail.

Dave Miles

By emaiI