A boyfriend ate one once and said it tasted like burnt tyres. Paul can cook every other sort of pie, even savory cheese. But not meat.
He has this weird notion that he is somehow tainted. He liked Donald Nielsen; he was older, stable, kindly. Nielsen cooked him dinner, and plied him with booze and then Paul woke up underwater in the bath with a tie being tightened around his neck. Donald apologized, helped him out of the bath, and dried him down. It was only the next day that Paul began to think that someone had tried to kill him and that he had allowed someone to get away with trying to kill him. Paul stayed silent, until he saw the papers. The police were thunderstruck. Why had he waited until now? Paul still doesn't know.
Donald Nielsen cooked him meat pies. He cooked other things as well. The train stops at Waterloo. Paul gets out and a woman in blue, head held high, sweeps past him. For some reason, the platform sways underfoot and Paul has to sit down.