Cotton farmers were facing a grim future in the 1960s.

Ten years ago the book world was looking at a grim future of inevitable surrender to the digital universe.

But if we have another epic run of dry years we could soon be facing a grim future without urgent, imaginative action.

In the course of one day we are shown an entire way of life, its disappointments, its grim future.

The giant cash-raising exercise shows the nation's biggest bank preparing itself for a potentially grim future.