“... mastery of fluent, conventionally decorative prose that later gave him bullet-proof cultural self-confidence as he moved south into the Oxbridge world. For a short time at Keighley Grammar, he fell under the soggy influence of Moral Rearmament, the right-wing purity crusade. His schoolmates derided him, but Briggs always retained an undefined Protestant ...”

“... family and is known to friends and relatives as ‘Milk Butter’ because she is spoiled and self-indulgent; Zikora is a pragmatic lawyer at a prestigious DC law firm who yearns to have a picture-perfect family; Omelogor is a brash investment banker in Abuja who launders money for Nigerian politicians and redistributes funds to poor women (she calls the ...”

“... publisher and performs poetry readings at children’s camps – and her monologue is vicious and self-pitying. Her resentment at what she sees as her children’s slovenliness and entitlement generates plenty of cynical aphorisms about family life: ‘Men are like road signs; children mark chronology’; ‘Love them – they’ll torture you; don’t love ...”

“... inner London land to build on. In Greenwich and, especially, Blackheath, the list of architects’ self-designed houses is long: Peter Moro, Brian Meeking, David Branch (whose elegant, Miesian case study-style house has now been demolished), Leo Rubinstein, Paul Tvrtkovic, Ray Smith and Ronald Coleman. Most of these were deadpan little houses, in brick with ...”

“... values their multiple identities (faith, cultural and British). This will contribute to nurturing self-esteem and self-confidence, forming the basis for understanding and appreciation for the heritage and beliefs of others.’ Of course there will be clashes and conflicts, but when they come up you try to resolve them with ...”

“... cut deals with American oil companies to assure the latter’s independence of London, he died a self-declared socialist – who never hesitated to advocate unpopular causes in his own country – under secure Saudi protection. The figure of the British enthusiast for the cause of an oppressed people abroad goes back to Byron in Greece. Lawrence and ...”

“... and nobody must know of my plan: secrecy would be an insurance against failure. But the harder my self-imposed task proved to be, the nearer it might come to filling that blank. Don’t tell a soul. Just do it. Soon, then, every evening after work at the office, my formerly reluctant steps from the Underground station to the empty flat would be impelled by a ...”

“... usually expected of the public servant’. It went on to warn that ‘if some measure of self-policing (or self-discipline) is not instituted’, the Trustees might find themselves obliged ‘to take a more active part in the management’ of the institution. Since then, there has been no more speculation about the ...”

“... to foresee that Israel might characteristically conclude that aggression was the best form of self-defence. This opened up the possibility of a collision between the war plans of the anti-Egyptian powers. But whatever the Hooknoses were up to, how could General Sir Charles Keightley, as Allied Commander-in-Chief, apparently possess privileged knowledge of ...”

“... dined with Mr Heath, one wonders? Francis Pym is criticised for ‘publishing a bitter book of self-justification’ immediately after being sacked as Foreign Secretary. That opinion would not survive even a cursory reading of The Politics of Consent. Yet Mr Horne is generally pretty fair, and he even sides with Macmillan over ‘the little local ...”

“... ways of defining our obligations. All trade-union leaderships run the risk of degenerating into self-serving oligarchies, more concerned with defending their empires than with considering the long-term interests of their members. In the present dispute the AUT, like all unions, insists on the sanctity of national bargaining and uniform salary scales. But ...”

“... and The New Atalantis (1709), with passages of factual commentary, she offered a counterfeit self-portrait of a woman whose true identity might best be represented as a series of fictional impostures. Irene von Treskow’s cover illustration confirmed the sense of life as performance: ‘Manley’, disguised in the black robes of a ...”

“... person was wounded and almost no damage was done.’ So much for Sharon’s claims of Israeli ‘self-restraint’ and the PLO’s ‘intolerable provocation’. During the invasion itself, Sharon asserts that Israel took ‘the greatest precautionary efforts’ to avoid civilian casualties. I have never understood why Israeli officials lied about this when ...”

“... within us, the psyche constrained and persecuted. So is it all the fault of the audience? Or does self-criticism attach to the old wolf’s ‘left-over scraps and bits of energy/And bitten-off impulses’? That might describe how Hughes still says ten things (three of them brilliant) about a macaw or dove without the result adding up to a poem. Over-free ...”

“... Sometimes the way in which a football team comports itself on the pitch is a question of national self-image. The Brazilian team, which qualified for the second round by winning all its first-round matches, did so amid a storm of protest at what was seen, by Brazilian pundits and spectators, as the team’s un-Brazilian approach – too cautious, too ...”