“... of Taiwan within the family of overseas settler nationalisms lie? Schematically, it might be said that four particularities set it apart within this group, corresponding to each of its decisive modern experiences. First, separation of the overseas settlement from the imperial homeland came neither by revolt, as in North and South America, nor by ...”

“... were introduced by Carlyle’s first real friend, the bold and enthusiastic charlatan-in-training Edward Irving, who had been Jane’s Latin tutor when, as a much adored and adoration-craving nine-year-old, she had demanded that her father permit her to study as boys did. The tutoring had lasted only two years, but Irving met her again the year before he ...”

“... as well, such as the work of John Ferriar at the Manchester Lunatic Asylum in the 1790s, or of Edward Long Fox, from whose Bristol madhouse Tuke recruited Katherine Allen, the Retreat’s first matron. In what ways does Porter claim to go beyond this? First, by widening the circle of those entitled to be known as ‘moral managers’ to encompass a much ...”

“... lever to assume a life of its own and at least for a time to dominate the nation-building process. Edward Thompson insisted that the working class was present at its own birth: it was not only modelled by impersonal forces, he said, it helped to make even its early history. But most workers originated as ex-peasants. In many ...”

“... rivals in Beijing. Xi is a transformative leader of a conservative kind. What cannot reasonably be said is that the Clinton or Bush administrations were naive about the ease of convergence with China. The terms of its accession to the WTO were demanding; thousands of Chinese laws had to be brought into compliance. As Blustein recounts, Zhu Rongji, the Chinese ...”

“... rounded up in 1963 were accused of plotting a coup d’état against the monarchy. Diouri was said to have stolen weapons from a US military base. After a lie-detector test performed by four US army technicians, he was delivered back to Hassan’s chief of security. His destination was a sumptuous palace in the capital, Rabat. It had belonged to the grand ...”

“... whether she’d mind if I were to go abroad shortly for a couple of weeks. ‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to die now … But I wish I could.’ When I got to the door of the ward and turned to wave goodbye, she was sitting on the bed looking like an ageing empress. Her wave across the intervening distance seemed curiously valedictory. My ...”

“... and left the burden of domestic toil to her mother and sister: ‘I do love to run fast,’ she said, ‘and hide away from them.’ She arrived late to church to escape small talk. Here she is in 1853, boasting to Sue of successfully evading the congregation:I’m just from meeting, Susie, and as I sorely feared, my ‘life’ was made a ‘victim’. I ...”

“... Castro. During the infamous Cuban Cultural Congress in 1971 (much more later), Fidel Castro said in his closing speech that before the Revolution there was only one theatre in Havana. He was lying, of course. But then the British reader might say that at least the man cared about culture. It would have been better if he didn’t. One bit of learned ...”

“... café of a Buddhist centre in Croydon, one of which was by me, though I have no idea now what I said. In January 1986, the Tatler asked a dozen writers for their views on Firbank. Angus Wilson: ‘R.F. is one of my few really admired novelists. Do squeeze my name in as a devout admirer if you possibly can.’ A.N. Wilson: ‘I have never been able to read ...”

“... saw the worlds he admired dissolve in his lifetime: Haile Selassie deposed by the Dergue, Nuri al-Said felled in his palace, the Imam of the Yemen – for whose slave-holding tyranny Thesiger fought in old age – defeated in his bid for a counter-revolution. But his books contain little or no advocacy; they are virtually pre-political. St John Philby, his ...”