“... and performance art, masks might be involved, candles were pre-burned to exact heights. But the self-consciousness seems not to have inhibited conversation; they preferred small gatherings to big parties. This was what became the Californian dream, a life of art, relaxed sophistication and dappled sunshine, and it was a vision the Eameses helped to create ...”

“... The socialists are watching their backs, in particular the prime minister, Manuel Valls, a self-confessed ‘Blairiste’, who has hardened his opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. A few months ago he was laying down preconditions for TTIP, but within days of Brexit he seemed to have ruled it out entirely (‘I tell you ...”

“... winds leaves birds systems directions visibles invisibleshoneysuckle limbs and rose gaining self-song, motion, entering thiscontinuum – oh continuum do not lie to me with this delicate weight oftime, this floating of as ifs and further-ons and all your guides todreaming, abundance, the coming true of the true. No. From under here,listening hard, light ...”

“... is split into four sections representing the different possibilities stipulated in the letter. The self-portraits are hung with texts in the glass cases below corresponding to the faces above. Man Ray sent two texts, ‘L’Inquiétude’ and the unintelligible ‘Simultaneous Dialogue’. One of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s wooden constructions is included; in the ...”

“... there are echoes of Repin’s Baroness von Hildenbandt: the tall, slender figure of the imposing, self-assured actress, the controlled and minimalist Whistlerian harmony in black and grey, with sparing highlights in muted gold. Serov was courted by Diaghilev and retained close ties with Mir iskusstva. His blend of insight and elegance, without seeking to ...”

“... to get rid of her patient, and recommends that Reynolds take a holiday, think of the different self he will be one day, and give up guns and bodyguarding. He’s willing to try, and it’s always amusing when a character in film or fiction shows such extraordinary ignorance of the kind of story he or she lives in. He’s scarcely had time to spread out his ...”

“... drops into dire neorealist gloom. Our hero is Ibrahima Dieng, played by Makuredia Guey, a pompous, self-regarding man who has been out of work for some time. His main activities are bossing his two wives about, ignoring his numerous children and devoutly uttering praise to Allah every five minutes. He also likes to take a walk in the streets of Dakar. For this ...”

“... not only between humans but of every being on earth.’ Hildegard’s concept of a world in which self emerges through plants provides a prototype for this. In a reversal of gender stereotypes, she figures the Virgin Mary as ‘the greenest branch’, a symbol of virility and wisdom, while Jesus is the flower. This vision shares much with Yggdrasil, the ...”

“... that his victims are more gullible and needy than Power’s. Leaving out the money and the self-adulation, which game is more fun: deceiving the intelligent or deceiving the stupid? The figure of the geek (in the old sense of a freak-show performer) plays an important role in this story. In all the versions he is an addict who has become a star ...”

“... that might otherwise never carry. Botham’s ability is unquestioned, and allied to a massive self-confidence, the overwhelming desire to beat even his children at tiddlywinks, and a belief in his own indestructibility, it becomes formidable. Anyone who can bring the Stock Exchange to a standstill doesn’t need the media to make him a superstar. His ...”

“... they really were. Contributing to this quarterly can hardly have been quite as subversive of human self-esteem as Cockburn warns. When, in the course of the 19th century, secrecy was abolished for most areas of literary journalism, Jeffrey’s degree of dictatorial rewriting did not die out, and a folk wisdom has persisted to the effect that reviewers write to ...”

“... among those many who, at public functions, have encountered the Queen herself, there is the self-satisfied, would-be grudging admission that she too is marvellous: attractive, well-briefed, small and human. In all this, the popularity of Prince Charles is very high, and seems likely to remain so. Moreover, among women there is the Mastroiani syndrome ...”

“... and unusual. It is ironic that historians of 18th-century England – only too prone to attribute self-interest to their more gentrified high or low-political protagonists – normally approach the more modest adherents of radicalism in a spirit of piety. Those who protest are almost always invested with an ingenuous zeal for political reform; they are even ...”

“... world for others to discover. There is, of course, Kindle publishing, which might allow groups of self-elected readers to purchase and read the books that supermarkets don’t sell, but my guess is that it’s not at all what Amazon and Apple have in mind. The electronic reader is exciting, if only because I can carry all my books around without hiring a ...”

“... without once commenting on the situation itself, articulated a good deal of what seemed the slick self-satisfactions at the heart of this piece. She came over as I was planning to leave. She was older than the others I’d met, and her anecdotal gambit put me off at first: ‘I had this very recent awakening or moment of arrival.’ As I feared, it was ...”