“... thing, start doing poetry and prose that is nothing but ‘poetry’ and ‘prose’. This is what John Fuller’s new rhymes for children are: they announce their literariness and children can no doubt admire it, for in this context they know, like older readers on the poetry scene, what is proper to it. But Walter de la Mare’s line ‘Who said, “Peacock ...”

“... old gentleman prided himself on cooking the meal for his still working wife: but in fact he only took it from the fridge and put it in the oven and turned the gas on: she had bought and prepared the ingredients. Still the pride was something – probably a good deal. Self-respect in one’s activities is shown to be what matters. One of the female ...”

“... is confirmed by others who had the same experience: his successful marriage and the pleasure he took in his six children, one of whom was to become a Nobel Prize-winner in physics in his turn, and the shattering double blow he was dealt by the deaths of his oldest son in a boating accident and of the youngest from meningitis. Pais’s subtitle reveals the ...”

“... of the Transitional Period, a transmogrification of the former Institute for Economic Policy. I took him some papers which his aide, Vladimir Mau, had asked me for. He was clearly settling down for a spell of academic life with relish. ‘I’m not too pessimistic,’ he said. ‘There are certain realities of life which will impose themselves.’ ‘It’s ...”

“... rigour with which these examinations were relentlessly conducted. Even for a brilliant student, it took several years of intense effort to achieve the required standard: over the whole period from 1933 to 1961, only 43 candidates (in the whole of Russia) were successful. It is not surprising that at least seven are now members of the Soviet Academy of ...”

“... But in fact realism in the usual sense was not what anyone produced, for Australian writing took everything for granted – the empty country, the dust, the trees, the urban scene above all – because taking things for granted is the stance of the ordinary man, and homo australis took pride in being ...”

“... for concrete results: Khrushchev frequently altered the leadership’s composition, and even took on the post of prime minister as well that of Party leader: but this did not help him in 1964. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to judging where Soviet society is going is a lack of knowledge about where it has come from, and even what it actually is today. For ...”

“... seen had often been in evidence during the previous two years as the opposition to Boris Yeltsin took shape. The Soviet flag was in the majority: plain red (no need for a variety of colours to represent different strands in the nation – this was a Union in which all contradictions, colourful or otherwise, had been resolved) with the little hammer and ...”

“... literature are published now. The theoretical essays will come out next May. Born in 1928, Miller took his first degree in science. He converted to literature as a graduate and was steeped in New Criticism during its most doctrinaire phase. He describes his emancipation from its discipline as something comparable to Dorothea’s loss of her provincial ...”

“... Jaguars and BMWs were the favourite cars on an island that measures nine miles by five. I took a job in a trust and company administration business, where I had to follow instructions faxed daily from banks and law firms across the world. This was a world of smoke and mirrors, in which a Jersey registered company might be owned by a trust based in ...”

“... a diminutive. ‘Pavlik’, another diminutive, was never used until the Komsomol press took it up. When Druzhnikov pointed out obvious contradictions between what they had experienced and the official version, interviewees often said that their own memory must be at fault. Pavlik’s mother, who was still alive in the early Eighties and living in ...”

“... were supported by the Whigs. Indeed, the subsequent formation of the Liberal Party, though it took twenty years of faltering manoeuvres to accomplish, entailed a Parliamentary union between Peelites like Gladstone and Whigs like Lord John Russell. The Gladstonian Liberal Party, which was to dominate Victorian ...”

“... Sir John Low​ finally hung up his helmet seventy years after joining the Madras army in 1804, having served the East India Company as soldier, jailer, agent and councillor. As a rookie lieutenant, his regiment mopped up in Mysore when the British took over the old kingdom of Tipu Sultan ...”

“... on the environment and social structure of Chile is enormous. Inspired by this example I took a look around my local Asda and found fresh Brazilian sirloin at £2.96 for a 250g steak. Let’s parse that price. Beef cattle are usually between one and two years old. So that cow was raised and fed for (say) 18 ...”

“... to merit; the ancient universities opened up to Nonconformists and agnostics. The bourgeoisie took advantage of the opportunities thus created and became a pillar of the establishment. They switched to careers in government service and education; sent their sons to public schools and Oxbridge; patronised the arts and the London Season; and propounded ...”