“... Gillian’s decision at sixteen to change her surname from that of Leslie Stone, her ‘strict … stern’ biological father, to that of Irving Rose, the ‘kind, equanimous, humorous’ Irishman her mother married next; the fabulously ‘over-ripe’ interpretation she develops, the Rock of Zion and the Romance of the Rose, with the help of Joan Lindsay’s ...”

“... hush up an accusation of sexual abuse in the choir? The discrepancy of tone in Virtually Normal, stern with mavericks, soft on institutions, is not normal but virtually pathological. It should go without saying that after the null bumblings of Spencer’s prose Sullivan comes dangerously close to looking like a master stylist. He turns the occasional neat ...”

“... First Letter to the Corinthians, the passage about love, with Father Jolliffe opting for the King James version using charity. He took time at the start of the reading to explain to the congregation that charity was love and not anything to do with flag days or people in doorways. Or if it was to do with people in doorways that was only one of its ...”

“... him inevitable that he should behave as a member of its established church. He was married in St James’s, Piccadilly, and sometimes he accompanied me to church. How deep this went was not a question that either of us was disposed to pursue, though for different reasons: I because, though, when I went away to school, I encountered boys who were Jews by ...”