“... spoke like a gentleman: ‘Grandpa, if you and your good wife could have one wish ...?’ ‘May we work as vergers in your chapel, and, since our lives Have been spent together, please may we die together, The two of us at the one time? I don’t want to see My wife buried or be buried by her.’ Their wish came true ...”

“... a train of motes in their wake, the sough of traffic along Claremont Boulevard. I’ll wave. He may or may not wave back. Usually not, or maybe offer the barest of nods. Some days more than others weigh heavily upon him, I can tell that by now. One day I thought I even overheard a sob, which is all the noise I’ve ever ...”

“... and funny’. At least they make each other laugh.) Tim Allan, a former Labour aide who may, rather marvellously, be sued by the organisers of the event for leaking the story to the Times, has said that ‘it is a matter of huge public interest that John Humphrys was getting paid thousands of pounds to tell audiences that . . . the job of the BBC ...”

“... the BBC that spun, should never have become the issue it has become, to the point where the BBC may suffer lasting damage at the hands of a vindictive regime. The hard fact is that the evidence, whether spun or unspun, was, we’re now entitled to believe, false, and in my own view (see Short Cuts, 19 June) is likely to have been sufficiently negative in ...”

“... broadcasting talent (unless you count Alistair Cooke and Clive James, who provide epigraphs). This may be because Lawson overlooked Connolly when it came to changing the names, or it may be because he forgot Connolly isn’t a member of the royal family. ‘I think you get into such an alternative Britain, once you start ...”

“... The most dramatic episode in the short history of automated trading was the ‘flash crash’ of 6 May 2010, a sudden huge fall – and then almost as rapid a recovery – in prices, which led to a widespread disruption of trading. Cermak was where the crash began. It seems to have been triggered by a set of electromagnetic signals – originally generated by ...”

“... The anger may have subsided on the streets as hoodies, gangstas and other members of Kenneth Clarke’s ‘feral underclass’ retreated into the shadows after last month’s riots, but it soon burst out in courtrooms across England. The most egregious instance was the judge at Chester who gave two men without criminal records four-year prison terms for trying (and failing) to incite riots via Facebook, but it was among magistrates that the rage was most sustained ...”

“... grain is helpful. 9.3. Their eyes fell out. 11.3. The food was tastier that way. 11.5. This may sound to you like a mere boyish stunt. 11.1. The pantry, what a relief after the splash and glare of the helm. 4.1. To uncontrive. 6.0. To the Cycladic people is ascribed the invention of the handbag, 3.1. Quite a number of frying pans have been found by ...”

“... kept their dogs. An exception was made for those registered before the policy was implemented on 1 May. But many dog owners weren’t notified and learned of the new pet policy from the TV or fliers from community organisations. Some heard nothing at all. A few days after the ban was announced, a woman named Iris posted on the American Society for the ...”

“... to train Saudi prison guards exposed the clash between morality and mercantilism. The balance may be shifting as security pragmatism is added to moral distaste to tip the scales in favour of getting tough on Saudi Arabia. The short-term demand for high-tech armaments contracts and longer-term oil and gas reliance may be ...”

“... verdict is perverse and the sentence ludicrous.’ As in Berlusconi’s case, the verdict may yet be overturned: the defendants have two opportunities to appeal, and the sentences will only come into effect if and when both appeals have been rejected. The judge who found the seismologists guilty hasn’t yet published his reasoning – he gets three ...”

“... or any of the events for things that might actually have happened. Conversely, the disclaimer may instantly arouse suspicions in a certain kind of reader: surely you need to deny that your characters are portraits of real people only if that’s precisely what they are. It seems slightly foolish, therefore, to draw attention to yourself with protestations ...”

“... elected with a majority of 12,451 rather than 12,450. Hunter won’t be seeking re-election in May, having seen his majority – which peaked in 1992 at 21,198, making Basingstoke an apparently unassailable Tory stronghold – dwindle to a meagre 880 in 2001. A member of the Orange Order, he was one of the few MPs to vote against the Good Friday Agreement ...”

“... They found George Bush in the White House gym. He was working out.More paranoid readers may be able to detect some significance in the fact that tinyurl.com/bush sends you not to anywhere on the official White House site, but to a story from the 15 May 2003 edition of the Globe and Mail about an office block ...”

“... are called Leigh and Woodhouse, the one a Sheffield Wednesday fan, driven to authorship it may be in the hope of taking his mind off the poignant decline in the standing of that pleasingly named old club, the other a supporter of Aston Villa, or the ‘claret and blues’, as some of us were brought up to know them, though now that teams seem to take ...”