“... salient novels, sprinkling these accounts with sharp comments as to the thought or motive that may have lain behind such and such a device of plotting or characterisation. He then essays some broader judgments about the novelist’s attitudes towards humanity as a whole and homosexual humanity in particular. He points out, for example, that Capote’s ...”

“... wise, urbane, deeply reflective, spaciously well-informed and independent in judgment. It may be that his independence of judgment is sometimes carried too far: I thought it strange to read an entry headed ‘Anomie’ that made no mention of Emile Durkheim or of Robert Merton. ‘Anomy’ is declared obs. by the OED but the French variant anomie ...”

“... by her husband, and he shoots her. The girl hides, and for a moment it looks as though the man may not realise she’s there. Then he glimpses her under a bed, and she jumps out with a gun and shoots him.He seems to be dead, and she drags the corpse towards the lake. Then he sits up, and she runs for it, out onto the ice. The further she goes, the thinner ...”

“... long been the site of Great Patriotic War commemorations, attended by many Russian speakers on 9 May every year. But this spring the Saeima banned all rallies celebrating the Soviet victory and the monument was fenced off. Thousands of Russian speakers defied the ban and laid flowers in front of it. The flowers were cleared with a bulldozer; more were ...”

“... for them to produce their own platform instead of letting Zarqawi take all the limelight.’ It may no longer be so obviously in American interests to demonise the Sunni insurgents. Ever since Zilmay Khalilzad arrived in Baghdad as the US ambassador at the end of last summer, he has been cultivating the Sunni Arabs and limiting Shia control of the ...”

“... all the main parties are soon going to be in severe financial difficulty. The Labour Party may even have to sack a few press officers. The Hayden Phillips review of party funding, commissioned by Blair in order to get the press off his back, is due to report in December. Phillips has made a big deal of opening up the discussion of options – state ...”

“... football tournaments: the Republic of Ireland’s nil-nil draw with Liechtenstein in the mid 1990s may have been a low point, but the RTE commentator was happy enough to inform us that there were 20 people signing on in the entire country. Other interesting facts: Liechtenstein is now the only absolute monarchy in Europe, after its king decided he was bored ...”

“... Egyptian things still close packed in crowded cases was a reminder that, while a new environment may draw you in, it is the things themselves that keep you coming back. Acquisitiveness, curiosity, the pursuit of knowledge, aesthetic pleasure: these are enough to explain why some things were collected. They don’t always explain why we want to go and look at ...”

“... money made the country seem ridiculous and exhausted. The 1990s don’t yet have a mood. They may forever be defined by the style they preceded, what Martin Amis, rather horrifically, called Horrorism. Others may see it as a last golden age of selling the silver and weeping over Diana and burning the dead cows, a ...”

“... Chris Ofili, ‘Mono Amarillo’ (1999-2002) A shrine may be personal, private, even secret. It is a place where votive objects (models of limbs, figures, charms) are collected, where sacrifices are made, where curious memorials, fading flowers, dishes of food, are left. Here gods are propitiated, saints appealed to, spirits appeased ...”

“... psychological effects – these are aspects of the dystopian society we all live in now. Ballard may have started out as a science fiction writer, but his texts now read as social fact.’ When you pick up the daily paper and read of casual violence on a run-down estate or see plans for a new road, hypermarket or runway, it is easy to feel Ballardian ...”

“... to drink from, hats are to wear. In an art gallery, where the relevance of the use such objects may once have had is diminished, the question ‘What is it for?’ seems obtuse. The function of works of art is, on the whole, to be splendidly themselves. Yet ask the question of the 17th-century Spanish religious paintings and polychrome sculptures that are ...”

“... and central government. Meanwhile, Lansley, having stood down as an MP before the election in May, has been given a peerage and hired as a consultant to Bain & Company, which, according to its website, ‘helps leading healthcare companies work on the full spectrum of strategy, operations, organisation and mergers and acquisitions’. The appointment at ...”

“... when he leaves office. Cotton’s letter was characteristically pedantic (‘the president may serve only two four-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of six-year terms’) and condescending (‘we hope this letter enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system’). The response of ...”

“... to another requires a large and not dissimilar range of decisions or, slender as the distinction may be, choices, in order to deliver the poem, still breathing, into a different language, culture and often era. There is a large and fascinating literature about the act and art of translation, often described metaphorically, as by Christopher Middleton: ‘The ...”