“... a dying schoolfriend after people became disturbed by how long she had stood transfixed by Sophia Holland’s half-closed eyes. The moment has an echo in some lines from 1863:I’ve seen a Dying EyeRun round and round a Room –In search of Something – as it seemed –Then Cloudier become –And then – obscure with Fog –And then – be soldered ...”

“... of secret pictures of her in bizarre poses and costumes, and the Stieglitz associate F. ‘Fred’ Holland Day, whose semi-nude impersonation of Jesus Christ on the Cross – at once gauzy, grisly and homoerotic – provoked a scandal when he exhibited the photographs in 1898. The most prominent practitioner of the style in recent years has been the ...”

“... gas.The next day we zipped south on a motorway, Moby on the CD player, huge container trucks from Holland and Germany careening by in the rain. Coffee in Albert, a quick gander in the drizzle at the French war memorial in the town square, then on to the giant Lutyens monument to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval. It was mid-morning, and we were the only ...”