“... the word master.’ Henry’s father, also a freed slave, warned his son that his emulation of the white owner was like going back into Egypt once the pharaoh has let you go; Henry’s widow, Caldonia, must attempt to manage the impossible contradiction of her husband’s legacy. And above this is Jones, moving easily backwards and forwards: ‘It would be ...”

“... necessity we should not make into a moral virtue. When Clinton was first campaigning for the White House there was much talk of the handshake that lasted just a little too long, the eye contact that seemed too extended for mere protocol. But he was and is a charmer who deployed his social needs in the cause of interminable negotiations with a lot of ...”

“... were brought into being: that of Linda and that of Tone. Tone, of course, was short for Tony, who originally acquired his name as a result of Harriet mis-hearing a remark of mine quite unconnected with the subject. The Electric Cinema was showing a Pasolini season and I must have volunteered something like ‘I’m going to Accatone ...”

“... for anyone aspiring to be either Chancellor or Prime Minister. Let’s hope Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are studying it carefully. They can legitimately enjoy the more egregious mistakes made by the Tories since 1979, but they should be sparing with their scorn. They should remember the errors of previous administrations; and be thankful they did not win ...”

“... regimes who keep both radical Islamists and liberal democrats at bay. When George Bush and Tony Blair invaded Iraq they promoted the idea that the West was facing a worldwide jihadi threat led by al-Qaida. The global war on terror was against a single enemy: radical Islam. At first, each manifestation of that threat was attacked with massive ...”

“... did, as well as more recent experimenters such as Hopkins, John Berryman or the sub-Prynnean Tony Lopez. Donne and Hopkins used sonnets as vehicles for religious anguish because it’s so easy to suggest that they’re buckling under pressure, that the spirit will not run true to the form, or to God. The sonnet has a structure that invites mild ...”

“... though, is selective, teleological and dependent on long-standing myths. There is the log cabin to White House myth, transmuted in this case to Grantham-corner-shop-to-Downing-Street. But more ancient, less secular narratives have been brought into play as well, subliminal themes of sin, suffering and redemption, of long-awaited messiahs and of betrayals with ...”

“... has the intellectual confidence to describe it.’ A year later, however, Goodhart felt that ‘Tony Blair has finally lost his Midas touch.’ In October 2004, he carried the first of a long series of eulogies to Gordon Brown, then ‘odds-on to be prime minister before the end of 2008’. ‘The Brown transition,’ Goodhart wrote, ‘could help to ...”

“... Now, just as an indication of how the party’s changing, Wilfred got selected for Chippenham – white, middle-class, you know, deepest Wiltshire. And Wilfred tooled up to the selection meeting, wearing his jeans and an open-necked shirt, and just took them by storm. And they love him.’ ‘Do you want to meet Wilfred?’ the press officer ...”

“... plagiarist (his speeches stole from Neil Kinnock and JFK). Age took the edge off him. Reaching the White House four years ago, he accomplished at 78 what he couldn’t manage at 45 or 65. Perhaps he’s been better at the job as a mellow old man than he would have been as a middle-aged hothead – though that is little comfort to the rest of the ...”

“... simply (or simplistically), black writers probably want to talk about the same sorts of things as white writers – love, loss, desire, power, their relationships with their personal, social and political communities, with their environment, with other texts. Each writer, whether white or black, will draw on a varying ...”

“... used to diminish powerful Black women. ‘I feel most coloured when I am thrown against a sharp, white background,’ Zora Neale Hurston said. Gavin, an experienced biographer who has written books on Chet Baker, Lena Horne and Peggy Lee, as well as on ‘the golden age of New York cabaret’, should exercise greater care. (Incidentally, no context is given ...”

“... towards radical conservatism, Carlylism can also be discerned at work beneath the surface of Tony Blair’s Christian Socialism, a line which descends via F.D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley. Blair contrives to put an upbeat spin on his ‘muscular Christianity’ (‘tough’ is his favoured term) but the essence of Carlylism is gloom, its energy, as ...”

“... those who were members of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). Once the MCP’s forces began killing white planters, the British declared an emergency. Under regulations imposed by the high commissioner, Henry Gurney, British soldiers and police forces held tens of thousands of suspects without trial, burned homes, shot people indiscriminately and deported as ...”

“... through the long night of Thatcherism to the ruthlessly conservative modernising agendas of Tony Blair and New Labour, still with us today. One of my most vivid memories of dialogue with Cora is from the early days of Thatcher’s election when we were travelling back from some conference or feminist event and she expressed her anxiety that the new ...”