“... a man filled with zeal, with deep and horrified concern, a more passionate and effective Kofi Annan. In most of the narrative, Casement is not only simplified, which any novelist has a right to do with a figure from history, but he is simple, not of much interest – which is a different matter. Were the diary entries written about things that didn’t ...”

“... the hands of local schoolmasters and ministers, three brutal and unhappy years at school nearby in Annan, and then, at 13, the beginning of his studies at Edinburgh University, where his parents hoped he would prepare to become a minister of the Church of Scotland. He floundered about, hating the city and unable to like or be liked by his fellow ...”

“... rights to self-determination’. Hamas’s foreign minister, Mahmoud al-Zahar, wrote to Kofi Annan. It made no difference. When Hamas attempted to form a coalition government with Fatah, the US prevented it. A US-Israeli blockade soon produced bread shortages in Gaza. The US applied sanctions in an attempt to force President Mahmoud Abbas, who regularly ...”

“... might be more to this story than appears is suggested by a puzzling absence: the name of Noel Annan, fellow and later Provost of King’s, a close friend, does not figure in it. If in principle such matters have their place in an autobiography, they are of slight moment otherwise. The main burden of Hobsbawm’s treatment of these years is ...”

“... a supra-national one. Asked his view of Britain’s entry into the EEC in the early Sixties (Noel Annan reports), he replied: ‘I do not find it necessary to hold opinions on such matters.’ Hayek, on the other hand, held firm and far-seeing ones. As early as 1939, he argued in his prophetic essay ‘Economic Conditions of Inter-State Federalism’ that ...”

“... into a party for 16, with the guests the likes of the American ambassador, Roy Jenkins, Kofi Annan and such. She never seemed 103 or anything like it and got up for an occasion looked magnificent. She was a generous woman, publicly and privately, and Gowrie gives an affectionate account.9 April. A dream in which a young man with ginger hair picks me up ...”

“... by the salutary tale of Channel Four. Founded in 1982, it arose out of the 1977 report of the Annan Committee, which had in turn been influenced by left-wing critics, theorists and programme makers, who saw the new channel, with its pluralist structure, experimental ambitions and minority remit, as an ideal site for a new alliance, in which the ...”

“... even the 16th-century font recarved and thus deprived of its original design. 22 February. Noel Annan dies and gets good notices. He was one of the models for Duff, the best or certainly the most enjoyable character in The Old Country (1977). I always felt kindly towards him after learning that he would not stay in the same room as Paul Johnson. 15 ...”

“... to act on the Wolfenden recommendations, he had more than thirty acceptances, including from Noel Annan, A.J. Ayer, Isaiah Berlin, Maurice Bowra, J.B. Priestley, Stephen Spender, A.J.P. Taylor and Angus Wilson – in the full list, unlike in this sample, the heteros outnumber the homos. Encouraged by this apparently principled and broad-minded response, Dyson ...”