“... And if death is culturally determined, it is also historically specific and thus altogether a more complicated matter than Hamlet allows. Certainly, the Renaissance ‘crisis’ about death, which is at the centre of Neill’s concern, is a quarry worthy of the spry, meticulous scholarship he brings to its pursuit. Webster wasn’t the only Early Modern ...”

“... and Britain looming, she suspected he had run off to join the militia. Eleven years later, and more than a thousand miles across the sea, a surveyor carrying out a study of the Icelandic coast for the Danish government was guided through the barren landscape by a man who worked in a local shop. The surveyor wrote in his journal that his guide was ‘very ...”

“... only for Liverpool Corporation and never, according to records, used outside Liverpool.Further-more, the livery of the bus shown in the photo is that used in Liverpool from 1947 to 1958. If the point was of any interest to me, he added, it could all be fully documented from Liverpool Corporation records.As far as I knew, Wittgenstein and Ben Richards were ...”

“... Zarqawi to al-Qaida’s leadership, stressing the need to provoke a sectarian civil war in Iraq. Thomas Ricks later reported in the Washington Post that this was part of an American psychological operation aimed at demonising the armed resistance. The goal of the operation was to ‘eliminate popular support for a potentially sympathetic insurgency’, and ...”

“... municipalised under the Metropolitan Water Board. Eighty-five years later it was privatised once more, becoming Thames Water plc, and has since been globalised into the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG. The developing technology, false starts and ingenious solutions which enabled the water to be brought to Islington and then distributed through ...”

“... events described in the book. The Burroughs/Dennison sections are, on balance, better written and more entertaining. Burroughs was very much the mentor of the group, presiding over gatherings at his apartment at 69 Bedford Street, round the corner from Kammerer’s place, feeding his acolytes Spengler, Vico, Blake, Cocteau’s Opium, even psychoanalysing ...”

“... hero who shares Simple’s charming naivety. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the novel’s more violent aspects were addressed, notably by Thomas Mann, who in 1944 called it ‘colourful, wild, crude, amusing, amorous … boiling over with life and death … and immortal in the splendour of its sins’. Following ...”

“... Evie herself, taking guidance from teen magazines about how to shrink her pores and make herself more appealing to boys. Evie pays particular attention to a black-haired 19-year-old who she will later find out is called Suzanne: ‘That was the difference between me and the black-haired girl – her face answered all its own questions.’ One day, after a ...”

“... the neoclassical taste for draped, Grecian dresses in pale-coloured, light fabrics (little more than elaborate nightgowns) made warm drawers underneath a necessity. The first women’s ‘pantaloons’ – versions of the breeches that Regency men wore – were nude-coloured and reached to below the knee, sometimes to the ankle; from the 1820s, they ...”

“... the surprise was Byron’s, which crept up on him despite his firm resolution not ‘to love any more’. Ten days into their affair, when Guiccioli announced to his wife that they were leaving, he took the extraordinary step of promising to follow them to Ravenna.Byron had previously been scornful of the Italian convention of cavalier serventismo, by which ...”

“... or a version of it.Dickinson’s work first appeared in 1890 in a volume co-edited by Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Julie Dobrow’s After Emily attempts to rescue Todd’s reputation by offsetting her bad behaviour against the extraordinary labour she devoted to transcribing, editing and promoting Dickinson’s work. It also chronicles the trials ...”

“... no point in concealing the fact that his first six months in office have not been encouraging.’ More and more criticisms were being made – ‘by those who know’ – of Eden’s refusal to make decisions. Fairlie pointed to the remarkable fact that, although he had had years to think about it while he was expecting ...”

“... burying a spell on a lead tablet in order to strike a group of doctors with unemployment is a more embarrassing (self-) image. The erotic spells can be vivid: I bind you, Theodotis daughter of Eus, by the tail of the snake and by the mouth of the crocodile and by the horns of the ram, and by the venom of the asp and by the whiskers of the cat and by the ...”

“... ways of seeing the place are extremely time-consuming, and require the setting aside of three or more days of one’s time, and the advance booking of guides, livestock or equipment. That may, indeed, be the only ultimately proper way of viewing the Canyon: Mary Colter’s designs clearly imply a contemplative approach which includes (as did Powell’s ...”

“... reacting to the intellectual crisis of the later 17th century. All my past life is mine no more;   The Flying hours are gone. Like transitory dreams given o’er Whose images are kept in store  By memory alone. Whatever is to come is not:  How can it then be mine? The present moment’s all my lot, And that, as fast as it is got,  Phyllis, is ...”