Our resident hellraiser, Tim Bowen, recalls a story about some neighbours from hell.

In a recent series of incidents in the UK, a 75 year-old woman described how teenage vandals had made her life a living hell (a nightmare). She said that she had been to hell and back (suffered a lot) as a result of their actions and that her street had become hell on earth (extremely unpleasant and dangerous). She described one family as the neighbours from hell (extremely unpleasant people) and said that some of the vandals broke windows and damaged cars just for the hell of it (for fun and no other reason).

Another resident added that some families in the street had already got the hell out of there (left as quickly as possible), while another remarked cynically that there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance (there was absolutely no chance at all) that the police would deal adequately with the perpetrators and that hell would freeze over before any serious action was taken.

He said the vandals raised hell (caused trouble) on a daily basis and described a recent incident where all hell broke loose (everyone started fighting and arguing). He added that some residents were so fed up that they had decided to fight back and give the vandals hell (punish them severely). There would be hell to pay (they would be in a lot of trouble) if they showed their faces in the street again and if there was any repetition of the vandalism. He said they were determined to rid the street of the problem come hell or high water (despite all the problems or difficulties that might arise).