“... anywhere else, the death would have been merely suspicious and its cause would have remained unknown. But UCH is not only a leading teaching hospital; it is also associated with University College London, which has a Department of Medical Physics with a strong radiation physics group. A network of haematologists, radiation experts and toxicologists was ...”

“... the most striking developments were tied to slavery, which produced extremes of wealth and poverty unknown in other regions. The free economy of small farmers and a merchant class with a few grandees and many more ambitious shopkeepers produced less dramatic results. American farmers sought a decent ‘competence’ that would sustain both themselves and their ...”

“... sacramental formulae and gestures, ‘some out of mockery, some because they found those unknown words to be amusing’, and of Figueiredo debating with a peasant about who created Heaven and Earth, an exchange that degenerates into a dispute about who has the biggest books to back up their claims. The rules drawn up for the confraternities which ...”

“... and cannot be released. For such prisoners, many of them young and disturbed, an unlit tunnel of unknown length lies ahead. The appellate role is complex in such a situation: it has to respect what legislation prescribes, but as long as Parliament leaves judges some discretion the courts can seek to mitigate law with justice. The legislative erosion of ...”

“... of disorientation pervades the first half of the novel, which describes Blind (existential state unknown) as she attempts to divorce her husband, Ezra, a charismatic but odious man with whom she has three children. Ezra simply won’t hear of it. He allowed her to move with the children to Paris while he stayed in New York to teach. He puts up with her ...”

“... be the news-bearer but Louisa is the more deeply affected: she’s ‘turned into some heretofore-unknown’ version of herself and the final pages show her in a tender light, freed from her ‘reflexive hostility’. She also accesses buried memories that ‘many therapies’ have failed to unearth. It’s not a triumphant resolution, because it happens on a ...”

“... by wishful thinking. Works of art are attributed to the few craftsmen whose names we know. The unknown subjects of portraits become the long-lost faces of favoured figures. Crowd-pleasing narratives (some excellent, some less so) fill in the gaps.Two new books offer a welcome contribution to our understanding of this fractured legacy. Christina Faraday’s ...”

“... few years ago, shortly before Bridget came to work for them, when the house was burgled. A person unknown came in through the side door while Borden and his wife had taken one of their rare trips out together; he had loaded her into a trap and set out for the farm they owned at Swansea to ensure his tenant was not bilking him. The girls stayed at home in ...”

“... has achieved the impossible, an enigma forever eluding our grasp, one who communicates by hitherto unknown means: Is there an unwritable unknown poem that exceeds anything the technique of writing can do? We will never know. Maybe this is her triumph. She has taken her secret to the grave and will not give up the ghost. To ...”

“... way: your mother will find out that you meet me, and she will influence you against me!’ ‘The unknown,’ she says, ‘always fills my mind with terrible possibilities.’ And again: ‘How terrible it would be if a time should come when I could not love you, my Clym!’ And he: ‘Please don’t say such reckless things. When we see such a time at hand ...”

“... wasn’t just rudimentary but wrong, stating that her date and place of birth and death were unknown. According to the catalogue, the only certainty was that Cahun had been deported for her leftist political activities, as well as her Jewish origins, and had died in a concentration camp. In fact both women survived the war, with Cahun dying in ...”

“... Swiss bankers are believed to be buying shares eagerly – and again, they are buying them for unknown clients. Another salient is represented by the Mirror newspapers (the ‘Voice of the People’). The Financial Times wrote on 16 June of developments in that quarter: ‘In the secretive world of national newspaper management’, Clive Thornton ‘is ...”

“... asked for by Councillor Norman Briggs (deceased), but urgently required by a person or persons unknown. What may the larger purpose be, within the imperatives of which John Stalker has become entangled? It seems reasonable to assume that more is at stake even than the protection of individual RUC officers who may be guilty of serious crimes. The true ...”

“... is even written down: when listening he is as focused and as still as a chipmunk spying something unknown from atop a stone wall. In a large, substantial-looking apartment house built a few years before he was born – and where he was born, for formerly this was the home of his parents – Levi lives with his wife Lucia; except for his year in Auschwitz and ...”

“... were among the most successful authors. They wrote mostly narrative or social history, revealing unknown territory to generations who had learned almost nothing of Scotland’s past at school. Now, though, the fashion is more reflexive. Tom Devine, currently Scotland’s leading historian, targets myth – aspects of the past which have been either ...”