“... When I published my last LRB Diary in June, I half-expected that it would be not only reprinted but also spoofed by one or another of the broadsheets, as indeed it was. What I didn’t expect was that the Daily Telegraph would try to use it as party-political knocking copy when any reader could tell that behind its even-handed mistrust of all politicians was a genuine pleasure at the displacement of Major Ltd by Blair & Co ...”

“... to Sir Edward Stafford. But then we start to hear of another side to his character. On 27 June 1580, Lord William Burgh filed a bill of complaint against ‘Thomas Drury, gentleman’, who is without a doubt our Drury. In this document, discovered by Roy Kendall, Burgh alleges that Drury tried to swindle him to the considerable tune of £300. ‘Slyly ...”

“... for and partly about her by Philip Barry. It had a two-year run on Broadway, and (since Howard Hughes had bought her the rights) she starred in the film version for MGM. Quite apart from the life it portrayed, for a time The Philadelphia Story was her life. Many scripts were written with her in mind, and Dudley Nichols wrote some of her best comic ...”

“... up indefinitely without the prospect of a hearing.Long before she was pushed aside for Rudd in June, Gillard had tried to outsource the asylum problem with camps in East Timor, but the Timorese declined. It was one of many solutions to come unstuck. In 2011 she revived an old Coalition idea for a ‘Malaysian solution’, which would have allowed Australia ...”

“... thirty years ago. The United States, even the world, desperately needs more Ellsbergs. Sunday, 13 June 1971 is a day I remember very clearly: the day when excerpts from the History of US Decision-Making in Vietnam, 1945-68 (the actual title of the ‘Pentagon Papers’) began to appear in the press. I was serving as a consultant to the CIA’s Office of ...”

“... des Modes, with a few glances at Vogue and L’Echo de la Mode, for the year 1958 to 1959, from June to June. Each chapter has a fragile or funny epigraph (‘Gauze, organza, voile and cotton muslin, summer is here,’ ‘The twin set makes a noted appearance’) suspended over tough talk about ...”

“... more to have enough to eat and drink. The heroes in Hall’s story, besides Geddes, are Ebenezer Howard, Raymond Unwin and Patrick Abercrombie. The baddies, apart from hosts of anonymous speculative builders and town hall bureaucrats, are exemplified by Lutyens and Corbusier: Lutyens because his cult of the monumental turned the official city (New ...”

“... the Patrologia Latina (218 volumes) and the Patrologia Graeca (166 volumes). But, as R. Howard Bloch explains, Migne not only herded all the Church Fathers together and sold them using marketing techniques that are a Modernist work of art in their own right, he also published four hundred other books under the collective title Bibliothèque ...”

“... pulled. I’d have liked to have written that, though I’ve no idea who Kevin Whelan is. 8 June. John Fortune rings, just back from a gig with John Bird in (I think) Dubai. It’s for a group of super-rich Arabs, few of whom speak English and who have to have the satirical barbs simultaneously translated via headphones. Unsurprisingly there are not ...”

“... terrain for white Australians to feel ashamed and uncomfortable about. The prime minister, John Howard, has effectively used this guilt – holding it up as an indulgence on the part of ‘elites’ – to excite hostility among the majority towards indigenous people and their rights. To complicate matters further, about 15,000 people now identify ...”

“... into the cases of the Guildford Four and also the Maguire Seven, whose convictions were quashed in June 1991. May wrote that the Home Office’s ‘approach … was throughout reactive, it was never thought proper for the department to become proactive’.Appeal lawyers had battled for years with C3, a small department in the Home Office, which had the power ...”

“... other boarder, sneaked out and bought some Eukodol ampules and glutted myself.’ And again, in June: ‘From taking so many shots I have an open sore where I can slide the needle right into a vein. The sore stays open like a red, festering mouth.’ On trying to get off Demerol, just over a year later: ‘I probably would have made it except I came down ...”

“... border castles and towers. In Northumberland, James awaited the English army, led by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. Though apparently possessing advantages in ground, equipment and supplies, James allowed himself to be outmanoeuvred by Surrey, who cut off the Scottish army’s route north, forcing it to move to Branxton Hill, where its cannon could not ...”

“... The June 1947 issue of Life Magazine contains an article called ‘Young US Writers’, a round-up of 11 promising post-war authors. Of the 11, three are well-known today; of this famous trio, one is still alive, the other two subjects of recently published biographies. The first page of the feature is dominated by a large photograph of a superbly arrogant Truman Capote – 22 years old, tiny, but potent ...”

“... 10 June 1993. Fellow-guests with Tony and Cherie Blair at a BBC dinner. Blair says immediately to my wife: ‘Weren’t you kind enough to ask me to a drinks party for Frank Field’s 50th birthday?’ She answers: ‘Yes, and you neither came nor replied.’ ‘Didn’t I?’ says Blair, and subsequently sends a charming letter of apology ...”