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“... title, its brass-rubbings and its frequent dippings into the nitty-gritty of Christian rites, Alan Bray’s last book, The Friend, might not seem terribly exciting at first glance. And yet it is written in part as a defence of John Boswell’s Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, which came out a decade ago, and in part as sequel to ...”

“... form some kind of peak against the (very watery) sun. It looked like a favour worn by a Medieval knight or a fillet to ward off evil spirits. Still, it’s better than last week’s effort, an Afrika Korps cap from Lawrence Corner: Miss Shepherd – Desert Fox. September 1979 Miss S. shows me a photograph she has taken of herself in a cubicle at ...”

“... series of quarrels were in progress among the audience about whether Mr Mosley was a duke, a knight or a commoner. The chairman attempted a compromise by describing him as “Comrade Mosley”, but this found disfavour with a row of young women in the front ... One of them put his titular dignity beyond doubt by exclaiming ...”

“... to throw a party a few years ago for Mrs Eliot, and Seamus went as the representative poet. Some knight or other was giving a speech and he said that Eliot wasn’t the only poet ever to work for Lloyds. Cardiff’s Vernon Watkins gave a lot of time to his writing but refused to take days off, preferring to come to his desk. Then again, the gentleman ...”