Ralph remembered how Atropos had slashed Rosalie's balloon string after the dog had licked his hand, and his hatred for this strutting, leering, complacently insane creature suddenly exploded in his head like a rotten-green roadflare.

Every so often, I could see the man's fist, where all the balloon strings converged, and I could see he had them securely twisted together and in a tight grip.

I thought about Hailsham closing, and how it was like someone coming along with a pair of shears and snipping the balloon strings just where they entwined above the man's fist.

On its 2003 "entangling debris" list, balloon strings and ribbons accounted for 8 percent of the animals strangled.

The seagull then pops all the other balloons and Pingu crash-lands on the top of a high block of ice, from which he gets down using a rope made from the balloon strings.

Its point of origin wasn't the skull, however, as had been the case in all the people Ralph had seen while in this heightened state of awareness; Rosalie's balloon string rose from her muzzle.

The clown had raised one white-gloved hand (the other was full of balloon strings) and had waved slowly back and forth, his bloody grin too red and too wide, a scream turned upside-down.

Shelby twisted the balloon strings around her wrist as she reached for the phone.

Mrs Twit returns by biting through the balloon strings so she sinks slowly down eventually collapsing on Mr Twit in the garden.

A string, like a kid's balloon string, he said.