“... rather than another seems to lack any historical grounding: ‘Although existing family histories do not track changes in the father-daughter relationship over time,’ Perry writes, ‘I believe that by the late 18th century the responsibility of fathers for daughters was so far attenuated that the fantasy of paternal responsibility was the subject of ...”

“... setting suggests murky dealings – with John le Carré being thanked, under the non-pen name of David Cornwell, for ‘irresistible reminiscences’ – rather than any particular glamour. Serena Frome (the pronunciation of her name, Froom, poshly at odds with its spelling), both intelligent and beautiful, is the daughter of a bishop. Originally her gift is ...”

“... in an upstairs room . . . which had a Victrola for playing recorded dance tunes like “Songe d’Automne”. Whether sex sometimes followed one of Signor Rodolfo’s dancing sessions is anybody’s guess.’ Gay-for-pay: I’ll guess that sex followed, with women and (why not?) with men. He wasn’t the first to climb the ladder from prostitute to ...”

“... with his other major works in painting, notably the lost cartoon for a battle picture in the town hall of Florence, known as the Battle of Cascina, and the Last Judgment, is just as bad if not worse. About a hundred and thirty of the surviving drawings are currently on show in the Metropolitan Museum, including many of the most famous, in what must be one of ...”

“... pizza. They seem most comfortable in motion – driving back from the station, or walking down the hall in the apartment. In a room together, they are guarded. Teddy is obviously in shock: monosyllabic, unable to keep down his food, threatening suicide. ‘I just want her to come back,’ he says, head buried in his hands. ‘This can’t be ...”

“... inviolable principles apply. Sail is still far superior to power, partly because you can’t do it simply by turning an ignition key and steering – you have to be sort of to the manner born.’ For boats to be considered yachts, Fussell thought they should be at least 35 feet (or ten metres) long, and built in traditional fashion with wooden hulls and ...”

“... America railed: ‘What is being done to silence this man? Medieval Jews would have known what to do with him,’ which had an ominous sound. In 1963, Roth ventured a calm, considered defence of his intentions and methods in an essay titled ‘Writing about Jews’, but such harpsichord stylings could only sedate the rumblings for so long, and then, as if ...”

“... Boswell on the occasion of needling his famous friend with the news that the atheist philosopher David Hume had died well and without repentance. ‘The horror of death, which I had always observed in Dr Johnson, appeared strong tonight.’ Sherwin Nuland a surgeon from Yale, speaks to the Johnson in each of us, to our ...”

“... career at Balliol College, Oxford of Uncle Arnold, after whom not only his nephew but Toynbee Hall in the East End of London were posthumously named. Carrying the name Arnold Toynbee was a double-edged privilege, as the behaviour of the family testifies; when the young author published his first book under this style, he was reprimanded for appropriating ...”

“... than to ‘our research’. The work has largely been done by self-effacing individuals who do not appear on the volumes’ title pages but get their obscure billing in the cluttered text of the preface. Nor was their work mere catalogue drudgery. Most of the journals carried unsigned articles, and the task of cracking the codes of Victorian anonymity ...”

“... unconsciously, as it seems, Frank’s detailed study begins to present that sort of picture, as do Dostoevsky’s own letters, a selection of which has been edited by David Goldstein and Frank. The editing is superb, the notes meticulous, but it must be said that Dostoevsky does not come into the category of great ...”

“... has a long nave with plentiful seating and many smaller circumjacent chapels. In the next decade, David Riesman and Gerald Grant continued in the same vein but added: ‘Occasionally a visionary from one of the side altars will seize the main pulpit ... to lecture the vulgar utilitarians and then march off to found a rival church.’ Among the Luthers they ...”

“... as it was about the British working class and how it had been progressively disempowered and de-emancipated, first by the Conservatives, and then more decisively by New Labour. The Establishment, too, starts from a stereotype (the phrase was first used in its common modern sense by Henry Fairlie in the 1950s to denote the aristos who covered for Burgess ...”

“... in no possible circumstance acquire European territory by war, but it still did not want Russia to do so, and it became a cardinal point of British policy that Turkey should be protected for as long as possible, which plainly made Russia a potential antagonist. Shortly after the defeat of Napoleon, the young Grand Duke Nicholas had come to England. Lady ...”

“... To understand Nicole Kidman, David Thomson argues, you need to see a film called In the Cut. Not because Kidman is in it. She isn’t. The film stars Meg Ryan, is directed by Jane Campion and tells the story of how a lonely creative writing teacher, Fran, becomes involved with a cop (Mark Ruffalo) who is investigating a string of particularly gruesome murders ...”