He'd come to the surface of his comatose state to say: we're not alone, and then he'd sunk back into it again, his eyes flickering closed.

It was not until Sirius touched the first of the western palm fronds that he had sunk back to something near his former depth.

As the ethereal strains of the Introit and Kyrie filled the room Alison sank back without protest and closed her eyes.

Indeed, they genuinely were expecting to do no more than a few theatrical venues and then to sink back into relative obscurity.

When the group split up he was broke and unemployed again and sank back into mental illness and became increasingly reclusive.