“... per cent of it to three buyers for a total of more than $15 million. Consigning it to auction in May 2019, he was confident it needed to go for only $6.5 million for him to be able to repay them all. This may seem deranged to you and me, but Whitfield has studied the documents and thinks he was probably right – though by ...”

“... Nevertheless – and this is the second quality – however depressed and listless these men may briefly become, like Coyote they bounce back, spurred by ambition and blind self-belief. When Donovan contacts James, now a lowly solicitor, and asks him to process his divorce, James imagines that his early dreams of a brilliant career will finally be ...”

“... not known for their factual accuracy, and some of the anecdotes about Epictetus’ life in slavery may be embellishments. He seems to have walked with a limp in later life; perhaps this was caused by the enslaver’s mistreatment, or perhaps the story was intended to explain the limp. The chief outlines of his life are clear. He was born into slavery around ...”

“... Socialist Party, and Amendola, who now knew that his position in 1922 had been naive. On 30 May, Matteotti gave a powerful speech in Parliament denouncing the use of violence and intimidation during the campaign and calling for the election to be annulled. He was met with interruptions and insults, as well as open threats. Eleven days later, Matteotti ...”

“... of this have occurred at New College of Florida, a small liberal arts institution in Sarasota.In May, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a preliminary report on the state of academic freedom in Florida, which concluded that ‘academic freedom, tenure and shared governance in Florida’s public colleges and universities currently ...”

“... heart and pushed through a constitutional amendment allowing him another ten years in office. He may well continue as president for life: he’s only 57, a ‘small boy’ compared to 65-year-old Paul Kagame of Rwanda (23 years in office), 79-year-old Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo (26 years in office), 81-year-old Teodor0 Obiang Nguema ...”

“... are left in scattered locations in New Zealand, male displays are often solitary, and females may simply not manage to locate prospective mates. The Mauritius kestrel was probably the rarest bird of prey in the world in the 1970s. This was because of its diet: it lived exclusively on geckos, which were becoming scarce because of the destruction of their ...”

“... day, historians will put under the microscope the events of Friday, 2 April 1982. The full truth may never be revealed. Who telephoned whom, to say what? The apparent ephemeralities of that morning may never be identified. What is certain is that within minutes of the news of the Argentinian military aggression in the ...”

“... from exploding mortgages to collapsing schools and a real-wage death spiral. Its fiscal rules may prove a self-imposed prison. None of this is likely to prevent Labour winning, but there are few certainties about what it will do once it takes office.Starmer’s political statements rarely add up to much or endure for long: the ten moderately left-wing ...”

“... to preach Christian brotherhood with so much blood on their hands. The scale of their reverses may even have suggested a loss of heavenly favour. At Fulda on 3 May, fifteen hundred peasants were driven into a ditch to die. Within days, ten times that many failed to take the castle at Würzburg, even under the charismatic ...”

“... not local or even regional, but truly global; another (especially with Frankopan’s) is that they may contain a warning for our own time. Yet as James Belich writes, ‘historians are extremely uncomfortable with the idea that natural forces in some way circumscribe human agency.’ In The World the Plague Made he has a hard case to make, and a somewhat ...”

“... liberated on 4 June.Pina was killed as she ran after the truck containing Francesco. The murderer may have been a German or Italian soldier, or a member of the fascist militia, perhaps a police officer. The priest who was to officiate at the wedding cradled her head as she died. Francesco’s truck joined a convoy, which was ambushed by the resistance on the ...”

“... carvers etc – are often well-researched lists of enforced trajectories and places, which too may own several names. By the time the longed-for destination, deemed safe, is reached it has been conquered. The streets now honour the victor’s generals and nephews. Boundaries are obliterated with a pompously heraldic rubber stamp; they are reinforced by ...”

“... onto the skin of visitors before pricking in the ink:They have several wooden moulds, of which you may choose that which pleases you best, then they fill it with coal dust, and apply it to your arm, so that they leave upon the same the mark of what is cut in the mould; after that, with the left hand they take hold of your arm and stretch the skin of it, and in ...”