Rats
We have a thatched roof. They don’t last forever. So you need a thatcher. Or more than one, more than two. And they drink tea – with sugar. You almost need more tea than thatch. And they make a mess:
Someone suggested I should remember the Milly Molly Mandy stories and thatching was just like a haircut. I wish! But there is something else that does like the thatch – RATS. There are a lot of rats in Tregarthur’s Revenge. Rats and the disease they carry.
Writing about rats makes you dream about them. Thatching brought all that back. EEEECCH.

I’m sure someone out there likes rats, might even write a nice story about them, but horror is probably a better genre. I’ve heard you’re never more that a metre or two away from a rat wherever you are. I’m getting in a swimming pool to prove that wrong. Oh no, rats can swim too …