“... as Williams persists in calling it (‘master’ might be more appropriate), had surrendered in May 1940. One might have thought the surrender applied to its colonial possessions too. That’s certainly what King Leopold III – a true chip off his old great-uncle’s block – seems to have accepted when he ordered the governor-general of the Congo, Pierre ...”

“... past, the jazz of an unknown future, the jazz that promises freedom from the bad old times. This may have been an appealing urban serenade to young vloggers in 2011, but only if they had their eyes tightly closed and headphones on. It is not the history-burdened, misery-stained city one sees in the novels of Sonallah Ibrahim, Alaa al Aswany or Naguib ...”

“... that suggested poison. Joseph Boehm, who designed the commemorative coins for the 1887 Jubilee, may – but then again may not – have died in flagrante with Queen Victoria’s ‘bohemian’ daughter Princess Louise. Politicians used smart dress to cover poor morals: Joseph Chamberlain sported a monocle and an orchid ...”

“... Sex has become so common that it’s boring, the act itself almost beside the point, which may be a reason young people are reported to be having less of it. Obviously, sex doesn’t happen in a vacuum (that might be interesting); it’s often a way to discuss gender and power. That point, too, is a little tired, worn out from overuse, but it persists ...”

“... immediate negative impact will be smaller, areas outside the South of England and urban centres may find it considerably more difficult to adjust because they are poorer to start with. That was one lesson of the financial crisis: London and the South-East were hardest hit, but they recovered much more strongly than less affluent areas. The value of the ...”

“... Patrol’s investigation of Anna, Lime’s former girlfriend, a Hungarian who has fake papers and may be deported back to the Russian zone (in the film she is Czech, and played by the Italian Alida Valli). He says, ‘There is a lot of comedy in these situations if you are not directly concerned.’ A pretty bleak line, even if he does then show that he knows ...”

“... retaliate, and perhaps easing tensions, the meaning of forgiveness here is hard to grasp. While it may involve notions of right and wrong, it doesn’t signify condoning, or justifying, or pardoning, or reconciling with someone who has wronged. As the Molotschna women point out, forgiveness cannot be coerced: ‘Isn’t the lie of pretending to forgive with ...”

“... that he had completed a book, in German, which ‘solved our problems finally’. (‘This may sound arrogant,’ he said, ‘but I can’t help believing it.’)The working title of the book was Der Satz (a word that evokes not only ‘sentence’ but also ‘set’ or ‘musical movement’). It combined philosophical boldness, of a kind that Russell ...”

“... introduction to NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy 1932-60.* The political ideology of Neorealism may have been diffuse, in some ways Catholic and in others communist, but its mission was focused. The aim was to give a presence to those who had been invisible and a voice to the voiceless: the poor, the dispossessed, the unemployed, peasants, children and ...”

“... Davis remembers him telling her that he used to get nervous before delivering them. Part of it may have been to do with the methodical patience he learned during his two years in the mountain fastness of the Sierra Maestra. It was also the place where Castro, who worshipped Martí’s verses and read Gabriel García Márquez’s first drafts, wrote his own ...”

“... been a Habsburg dynasty in England. Unfortunately, her ghastly gynaecological difficulties, which may have shortened her life, meant that her much awaited pregnancy turned out to be a delusion. A fed-up and unpopular Philip soon departed to fight his Continental wars, returning only in March 1557 to plead for English military support. Parliament gave it ...”

“... outdoors. We don’t in fact know where Alaric grew up or even on which side of the border: he may well have crossed the Danube as an infant in the great escape of 376. Alaric appears in contemporary Roman sources for the first time in the early 390s, when he is said to have caused trouble in Thrace and prevented the Eastern emperor, Theodosius, from ...”

“... recent exercise – it’s now called the Research Excellence Framework – were released last May. The assessments are the Thatcher government’s most significant contribution to research policy, and are obsessed over by university leaders, emulated in some countries and studied in many more. They have both reflected and facilitated the UK’s ...”

“... The Spanish and Moroccan authorities admit to 23; NGOs put the tally at 37, but the real number may be higher. As many as 77 people, most of them young men who had fled their homes in Sudan and South Sudan, are still missing. Amnesty International calls these ‘forced disappearances’, since the migrants were last seen in the custody of Spanish and ...”

“... business brought about by the impact of total war. His career in the period covered by this book may be divided into four phases: the three years down to May 1915 in which he continued to hold office under Asquith as Chancellor of the Exchequer; the subsequent year in which he presided over the Ministry of Munitions in the ...”