“... book – stardust, idiosyncrasies and all. She is, as she confesses, over-excitable; she is also self-examining. Its sometimes confusing final pages refer to ‘the too, too solid flesh’ of Gertrude, which seems like a slip, and are especially reliant on these stories of hers. One of them has her wanting and not wanting to write a book, and seeking refuge ...”

“... Bond has changed in Skyfall. Whatever his manner, he is serving his country now instead of his own self-regarding virtue. This is certainly a quaint old fantasy of Englishness – I would have thought the reigning fantasy had more to do with robbing the country – and I had better end before I start quoting Henry ...”

“... by Wang Hai ‘Father’ (1980) by Luo Zhongli ‘The Third Generation’ (1984) by Hu Duoling ‘Self Portrait – A Subjugated Soul’ (1985-9) by Cai Guo ‘Human Beings with their Clock No. 2’ (1987) by Ziang Jianjun ‘Big Mouth’ (1988) by Wang Keping ‘Series of Abysses 1-6’ (1991) by Zhang Xiaogang ‘Mask’ (1999) by Zeng Fanzhi ‘Evening ...”

“... to be reconfigured,’ he later explained, ‘in such a way as to give incentives to motivate the self-interest.’Letwin and Redwood’s ideas also had traction in Tony Blair’s 1997 National Health Service Act. Together, the 1990 and 1997 Acts turned NHS hospitals into trusts able to operate as commercial businesses. Many formed Private Finance Initiative ...”

“... madly bad for even the gullible to follow. Taystee and the others turn against her with all the self-serving venom they applied in her service. All the other groups – the Latinas, the lesbians, the poor white trash (just the one tiny grumpy Asian lady) – have their dramas and morality tales, but only the African Americans are shown to be arrogant ...”

“... a close friend, at a party. Nothing much happens, and he justifies everything in the devious, self-deluding style we have come to expect from first-person narrators: ‘We didn’t take off our shoes, which made a difference, morally.’ But Marie’s husband, Lee, doesn’t accept the same fine distinctions, and punches him in the face. This incident ...”

“... that has limited European Union member states’ fiscal freedoms since 1999, to Gordon Brown’s self-imposed ‘Golden Rule’, which stipulated public borrowing limits. Business investors can cope with various models of capitalism, involving a wide range of tax rates, corporate governance systems and regulatory frameworks. What they can’t cope with is ...”

“... not only people he liked, but people he wanted to be liked by, and the overall picture is of a self-serving elite that flattered Epstein with their presence and enabled him with their shrugs. According to New York magazine, Epstein taught Prince Andrew ‘how to relax’. To be fair, ‘Andy’, as Epstein calls him, has never appeared to have too much ...”

“... Mussolini that Greece was weak and that his invasion plans were perfect. He was inordinately self-confident, even while failing to ensure the most elementary logistical preparations – mules, for instance, essential in the mountains. When the ill-equipped Greeks resolutely stopped his chaotic offensive and vigorously attacked in turn, Italian morale ...”

“... love, Nance.’) Forster had not liked it, seemingly on personal rather than literary grounds. Its self-portrait was too bleak and one-sided: Ackerley was greatly loved by his friends and this was hardly evident. Forster had written to this effect to Duncan Grant, saying that he agreed with Grant and wished he could give Joe ‘a good smack!’ But Grant ...”

“... for goodness: it is a form of post-traumatic shock that occurred after she tried to prevent the self-immolation of a Muslim woman on a Toronto street corner. But this historical or political twist does not displace the novel’s fundamental debate about women’s art and its reception. Reta’s first novel is praised for its ‘subversive insight’ by a ...”

“... explore the softer edges of emotion, the ways in which people suffer dents and injuries to their self-esteem. The new book seems more contemplative than his earlier work. But, as in all his novels, he is writing about characters in deadlock, about people who are baffled by their own experience. The Trotters, he writes, are ‘all of them inscrutable, even to ...”

“... a hefty inheritance, set sail for Australia, where thanks to family connections and thuggish self-interest he eventually reinvented himself as a Tasmanian aristocrat. The first archivist to whom Shakespeare reveals his ancestry warns him: ‘If I was you, I would not go around divulging that information . . . He’s a man of whom I’ve heard not one ...”

“... but the water is just shining in her eye.’ Because he does not pity himself – the absence of self-pity is one of the novel’s many strengths – it doesn’t cross his mind that one of Amy’s, or a reader’s, reactions to his story might be pity: along with anxiety, despair, disgust, excitement (harder to admit to), fear, horror, outrage, shame. Agu ...”

“... the West Bank by annexing most of the land and handing back the leftovers to Jordan or Palestinian self-rule. The Palestinians will now be dispersed between an isolated Gaza, bits and pieces of the West Bank and an isolated east Jerusalem. Oslo and Camp David repackaged this basic idea. Sharon is just less subtle than Rabin, Peres and Barak. The strategic ...”