“... and confusion. Unlike J.D. Vance and conservative podcasters such as Ben Shapiro and the late Charlie Kirk, Updike was never in thrall to American exceptionalism. He never longed to return to an imaginary yesteryear when everyone knew their place and personal pronouns were as distinct as a pen and pencil set. He was a lifelong Democrat who didn’t lurch ...”

“... in art.One day​ he set out on a walk from the town (he was a good walker), made his way up the hill and along the Poole Road and eventually arrived at the villa at 63 Alum Chine Road, where he rang the bell. Valentine Roch, the Stevensons’ servant, mistook him for a carpet dealer who had let them down. First she kept him in the vestibule, then sent him ...”

“... and in between carrying out the tests on Josephine he and I chatted about the great days of Charlie Cooke, David Webb and Peter Osgood. He told me it was already too late to try AZT and 3TC on Josephine but he was cautiously hopeful. ‘To get Aids there has to be mixing of blood, which means there has to be a break in the skin or an open sore due to ...”

“... of high school, she was troubled by his apparent aimlessness. When she derided him as a good-time Charlie, the boy shot back: ‘Well, why not? Maybe that’s what I want out of life. I mean, look at Gramps [her father] … is that what you’re worried about? That I’ll end up like Gramps?’ The boy had become impatient, irritated by the sense that he was ...”

“... the pathways were glittering as I made my way down to the church. I hadn’t taken in before that Charlie Richardson, leader of the Richardson Gang, was buried here, as well as George Cornell, the gangster shot by the Kray Twins in The Blind Beggar pub. But it was the graves and sentry toys of the unknown children that had lodged in my mind. The trees were ...”

“... in early March. I sank up to my knees, having failed to work out where the safe path up the hill to the road was under the snow. People say the icebergs aren’t as big as they used to be. Somebody showed me a picture of Ilulissat from the 1990s, a 300-feet-tall iceberg Alping it over the town. There were none that large to be seen now, but the previous ...”

“... skew so that she looked like a drunken signalman or a French guardsman of the 1880s; there was her Charlie Brown pitcher’s hat; and in June 1977 an octagonal straw table mat, tied on with a chiffon scarf and a bit of cardboard for the peak. She also went in for green eyeshades. Her skirts had a telescopic appearance as they had often been lengthened many ...”