Denis Lehane: Burst britches have me going to pieces

As you well know at this stage, it takes a lot to upset me. I’m a farmer after all, I deal with disappointment on a daily basis.

However, there comes a time in every man’s life when he can take no more. When he has to put the hand up and shout ‘Stop!’ When he has come to the end of his tether.

Well that moment happened to me this very morning when, as I leaped over a thorny ditch in hot pursuit of a weanling bull, the crotch of my pants ripped in two.