“You could tell just by looking at him he’d been round the block a few times. Sure he was no spring chicken and the lines in his face had been etched by sun wind and rain. But it was more than that; there was a twinkle in his eye and the hint of a grin seemed to permanently hang off his mouth.

“He was the kind of guy you’d want to have a drink with and then he’d tell you stories you wouldn’t believe. And some of them would be true; the hard part was working out which was which. For instance, out of the blue he once told me he’d had 5 wisdom teeth extracted. No one has 5. Some have less than the standard 4, but 5? And why? What’s to be gained by talking junk like that?

“Anyway I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. I first met Jack when I was a kid. My Dad was having some work done in the garden- some kind of fancy wall thing for planting flowers in and Jack was doing the bricklaying. He was a bit different from the builders we’d had before. He was balding, but had grown what hair was left below his shoulders…