Casting around for a Cretaceous giant

The problem with this time of year is it all gets a bit busy,” Charlie informed me when I asked him if he fancied going pike fishing. He spread out his fingers and began ticking off his upcoming pressing engagements. “I’ve got rugby training on Monday, a match on Wednesday and all that school stuff. Saturday I am playing Xbox and then another rugby match on Sunday.”

I struggled to control my smile as I looked at his earnest expression. “Well,” I said. “Perhaps you could forgo the Xbox so we can go fishing on Saturday?” My son has become sufficiently worldly wise that he recognises a rhetorical question when he hears one. Thus