“... above Brazil and progress in the tournament. They won 6-0. Before kick-off General Videla and Henry Kissinger had visited the away dressing room and in the unmistakeably ironic manner of mob bosses wished the unnerved Peruvians luck. The game is thought to have been thrown as part of Operation Condor, a CIA-backed agreement between South American ...”

“... the popular version of Scottish history that once flourished in pubs and school playgrounds, Henry Bell invented steam navigation when the Comet began its regular voyages between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh in the summer of Napoleon’s advance on Moscow. In fact, Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont had started running on the Hudson in 1807, and ...”

“... grave, and it was immediately obvious, with its tall hewn granite post and ‘Ernest Henry Shackleton, Explorer’ carved on it and fresh alpine flowers at its foot. But another grave caught my eye, at right angles to Shackleton. It had a low white headstone, but unlike the rest had a rough wooden cross standing over it. It too had fresh pink ...”