“... in Read. I particularly missed some of the Northern women writers such as Charlotte Elizabeth, Amanda McKittrick Ros, Frances Browne and Anne Crone, whose varieties of Unionism and feminism would have been intriguingly disruptive of the meta-narrative. Northern writing is otherwise well-represented. Tom Paulin edits a section on ‘Northern Protestant ...”

“... who accompanied her everywhere in her last years, was present, and so was the late Amanda Haight, the author of the first and still best English biography. I continued to ply Akhmatova with questions and she answered with as much interest and amusement as before. I had not had a tape-recorder in Komarovo, but now I had. Would I like her to read ...”

“... Queen Anne, Pactolus, Parthenon, Laidronette, Midas, Oenone, Quangle Wangle (Mr Lear again), Amanda, Passionata and Perhaps. You may select from these – but remember Old Foss. The suggestions, and that playful, authoritative tone, show the impress of a classical education on the minister’s boy from Carrick. There is the emergent writer’s thrill in ...”

“... the Broadway and turned into Beachcroft Avenue, which was not blocked by the police. Peach and Amanda Leon, who had agreed to stick together, were behind the others. Leon told the inquest that she heard police sirens and saw a row of police officers with shields and truncheons. She then saw a police officer hit Peach on the head from behind with a ...”

“... I go down to Leicester Square at noon, the Tube as crowded as at rush hour, then walk up Charing Cross Road to where the march is streaming across Cambridge Circus. There seems no structure to it, ahead of us some SWP banners but marching, or rather strolling, beside them the Surrey Heath Liberal Democrats. Scattered among the more seasoned marchers are many ...”

“... are as indiscriminate as Capote’s dancefloor, celebrating even the less illustrious careers of Amanda Lear and the Village People. Their unembarrassed trawl through the hits of Eurodisco, however, at least acknowledges Cerrone, a French disco star who released some of the era’s best records in some of the era’s worst record sleeves. The book doesn’t ...”

“... Inn at Earl’s Court. Sepideh had asked to be near friends. Ella would go on working with the Red Cross in the hope of bringing Sepideh’s family over from Iran to help her. (She arranged the visas with the Home Office. It was a painstaking process, but they came eventually and the council put the family all together in a temporary four-bedroom flat in ...”