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“... habit her family referred to as ‘elfing it’. When she was sent to deliver a letter, she would ring the doorbell and leg it; she greeted family guests with what she called ‘sorry grace’ and played the piano grudgingly – and only if visitors remained in an adjoining room. She avoided chores like the plague – ‘God keep me from what they call ...”

“... counsels of princely crime, but in his equable observation of contrasting civic and Christian virtues. The only evidence for this claim, abundantly disproved by centuries of polemic, is the autobiographical illumination Berlin reports in these pages – the intellectual discovery he himself made on reading Machiavelli. In such ...”

“... blown up and sank with half their crews. Dunn told his interviewer many years later: ‘If they ring down Full Speed, like they did a couple of times, and you’re supposed to be on the verge of meeting the enemy, believe me it’s a frightening experience . . . you’re waiting to be blowed sky-high at any minute.’ Interviewer: And all the time you were ...”

“... to cast a gentler gaze on the world, but the gaze is still filled with depth and wonder. The Christian God, apparent in Housekeeping, also lives in the body of these three novels, but Robinson has come up with the inspired idea of allowing the souls of the novels, so to speak, to be fully human. Gilead, Home and Lila dramatise the lives of a small number ...”

“... be found wicked – then from that much farther back again through the rule of Islam to the early Christian centuries within a deliquescent Roman culture, with Augustine’s war on the world’s virtues as merely ‘splendid vices’; and from that back again to Greek and, above all, Judaic idealism, an austere and fierce feeling for absolutes. It’s not my ...”

“... he said. ‘I am not asking you for your reason, I am making you an invitation. You may use my Christian name.’ He took pity on her. ‘I see your School of English was not as good as you imagine. You do not understand some very obvious things. Common idioms have escaped you. But I was wrong to fault you when you did not know the word ...”

“... by Terry Southern. Kubrick had brought in Southern after deciding that his novel The Magic Christian contained ‘certain indications’ of the turn he wanted to give the screenplay. They arrived at a method of showing, by the sedate and heavy-footed presentation of outlandish events, that the ordinary official routines of self-preservation were ...”

“... I liked her and so did my sister. On long walks to Gladstone Park she’d tell me the story of the Ring. It was very exciting, and Hagen seemed the most evil and frightening person ever. Jac and I must have been sad when she left because we were very exacting about her successors. There was one memorable incumbent who arrived one evening to take up her duties ...”

“... Health Organisation to overthrow Roe v. Wade is the culmination of decades of mainly white and Christian organising under the ‘pro-life’ banner. That abortion has now been rendered illegal by this ruling is also the result of the resounding failure of the Democratic Party to advocate for the bodily autonomy of those who wish to give birth and those who ...”

“... blue, is stitched onto a computer-generated Olympic Stadium; the stadium looks like a frozen smoke ring, a souvenir ashtray from Berlin in 1936. And good for nothing very much, after the event: West Ham don’t want it, rugby clubs are not keen to migrate from their West London suburbs, humble Leyton Orient FC is the best bet. Lord Coe, in the vanity of his ...”

“... threatened, rescinded or enacted. In an unexpected consequence of the trade wars, the Evangelical Christian Publishers’ Association warns that tariffs on Chinese imports will greatly increase the cost of Bibles – most of which are printed in China – and cause ‘significant damage to Bible accessibility’.*The president tweets: ‘So interesting to see ...”

“... ringing. They’ve maybe finished their hot drink and adjourned to the chapel. I suppose I could ring later, only ... ’ She looked at the coins waiting in Mr Ransome’s hand. ‘I’ve put my money in now.’ Mr Ransome gave her a pound and she took the other 50p besides, saying: ‘You don’t need money for 999.’ She put the receiver down and her ...”

“... The strangers, it transpired, owned the house and everything in it, hence their concern to find a ring that had mysteriously disappeared. There was no suggestion that I had any part in this, but perhaps I could help them find it? Throughout this agonising consultation, I could feel the box under my bed glowing, its heat reaching up through the mattress and ...”

“... a building worker in Brunei; so is the teenage boy from Shanghai indentured to a Chinese crime ring in New York. Refugees, too, are migrants. Often they share their route to safety with others who are not seeking asylum: the smuggling syndicates known as snakeheads, which induct Chinese women into a life of semi-slavery in Europe and the US, also ran ...”

“... of one of the largest mental asylums in Ireland. I was struck by the fact that the name didn’t ring any bells with David – after all, he was a psychiatrist, and interested in the history of his field. But I caught hold of myself. Why should it be a surprise that the Ballinasloe asylum – now known as St Brigid’s Hospital – is famous only in ...”