"the blunt truth"
"the crude facts"
"facing the stark reality of the deadline"

"a stark interior"

"stark poverty"
"a stark contrast"

"an arrant fool"
"a complete coward"
"a consummate fool"
"a double-dyed villain"
"gross negligence"
"a perfect idiot"
"pure folly"
"what a sodding mess"
"stark staring mad"
"a thoroughgoing villain"
"utter nonsense"
"the unadulterated truth"

"bare rocky hills"
"barren lands"
"the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"
"the desolate surface of the moon"
"a stark landscape"

"stark mad"
"mouth stark open"