“... policy for saying nothing about the Empire ‘and the part it alone can play in sustaining Great Britain as a Great Power in the world of tomorrow’. The Mirror in this case was out of tune with its readership. The manifest difficulty which the British public found in sustaining interest in the war with Japan after VE Day surely betokened its general lack ...”

“... operations, two of whom, James Wisheart and Janardan Dhasmana, were struck off even before Ian Kennedy’s report was published. The problems at the infirmary had become public largely through the efforts of Stephen Bolsin, a consultant anaesthetist with an interest in clinical audit, a process in which clinicians’ outcomes are measured. Bolsin ...”

“... of Men, Alfonso Cuarón’s film from 2006, adapted from a P.D. James novel, set in a near-future Britain of caged refugees and cheap euthanasia, a world in which no children have been born for a generation. As Fisher says, this dystopia extrapolates only a little: I watched the film myself the other day to check I’d remembered it right, and it felt like it ...”

“... 1960s, Pritchett himself, we learn, ‘made significantly more of his income in the USA than in Britain’. Pritchett is known, above all, as a writer of short stories, a form that suited his inclination to the episodic rather than the architectonic. This has led him to be described as ‘the English Chekhov’, but maybe he has to be thought of as a ...”

“... odourless and white. Until this development, three main substances were used for candles in Britain and all had significant flaws. Loveliest by far – both for their light and smell – were beeswax candles, but they were far too expensive for everyday use. Tallow candles were much cheaper but tended to sputter messily and leave a nasty meaty smell in ...”

“... Club, Athletic Bilbao, Royal Antwerp FC, Newell’s Old Boys are only the most famous – and Britain won Olympic football gold in 1900, 1908 and 1912. Uruguay – the inaugural World Cup host – had been founded in 1830, with British assistance, as a buffer state between Argentina and Brazil. The first official match in June 1881 between Montevideo ...”

“... Times or Guardian. Or you might prefer a raucous purveyor of scandal and moral bile like Britain’s Daily Mail or the Sun or the New York Post. These were big titles, but most cities and towns had a daily paper of some kind, with a mix of local and national and international news, comfortably financed by cover price and advertising. During the ...”

“... unworthy of that name.’ The isolated killing of one small boy explained the condition of Britain; as a result, it didn’t need explaining on its own terms. The Bulger case also served the useful function of helping Blair to come out from the shadow of Gordon Brown. Until that point, Brown had been the dominant member of the partnership (Blair even ...”

“... Malaya, Borneo, Hawaii, Australia, Siam, Burma, Guatemala. Of Human Bondage found a readership in Britain and the US; The Moon and Sixpence (1919) became a bestseller, and Maugham’s travels provided material for story collections, starting with The Trembling of a Leaf (1921). In 1926, he bought the Villa Mauresque – the original structure was built in ...”

“... many years ago, ‘The Triumph of the Word of God in the Life and Literature of John Bunyan’, Ian Paisley praised this ‘dreamer and penman’ for his ‘strong doctrinal’ preaching, his opposition to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the enormous crowds he drew, and for his prose style. This ‘poor unschooled tinker’ became, Paisley ...”

“... the centre, on a hill that gives views across the city and down to the river. She and her husband, Ian, didn’t believe Putin would try to conquer all Ukraine; they expected, at worst, a new attack in the Donbas. Half of their friends thought there would be a full-scale invasion. The other half, like them, were in denial. Andrusyk’s first anxiety came on ...”

“... Baths. The foundation stone was laid on 18 March 1903. The official opening was on 25 June 1904. Ian Gordon and Simon Inglis’s book Great Lengths: The Historic Indoor Swimming Pools of Britain tells us that E.J. Wakeling, vice chairman of the Shoreditch Baths and Washhouses Committee, animated the occasion by plunging ...”

“... at a press conference in Stockholm the week before arriving in London, he’d said: ‘I believe Britain could benefit from a fascist leader.’ Never mind that a degenerate like Bowie would have been one of the first against the wall. When the Daily Express asked him about the remark, he replied: ‘If I said it – and I’ve a terrible feeling I did say ...”

“... to the popular situation comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, aired on BBC television in 1973-74. Thelma (Brigit Forsyth) is the fiancée and subsequently wife of Bob (Rodney Bewes), whose scurrilous childhood friend Terry (James Bolam), returning to civil life after five years in the army, seeks to ...”

“... with a stairway to heaven. The steps, coincidentally, chime in with a poem by the recently dead Ian Hamilton printed in the LRB. We are on a kind of stair. The world below Will never be regained; was never there Perhaps. And yet it seems We’ve climbed to where we are With diligence, as if told long ago How high the highest rung. 23 January. To ...”