"Why are you looking like that?" asked Kyril.
"I was wondering why people put ferrets in their trousers," said Aunt Irene.
"Thanatos," said Kyril. "An illustration of the death wish."
"What I wish," said Aunt Irene, "is that you'd never read Freud. It's had a very leaden effect on your conversation."
Alice Thomas Ellis, The 27th Kingdom, 1999