C9 A novelist who knows Hollywood's bleak houses.

In this bleak house it was shrill; there was an echo of desperation in it.

Somehow, the bright, childish images in the otherwise vacant room served only to point out how bleak and empty the house was.

"I'm glad I left my bleak house to have Christmas dinner with you," Scrooge said.

As they rolled away from the big bleak house, Valencia repressed her first shudder.

Any child would want to weep in this bleak, unsafe house.

The picture of that bleak old house on this below-zero night was not a comforting one.

It was a bleak land, a bleak house.

Azzopardi is something of an expert on bleak houses.