“... Drugstore’) give a promise that is always kept. A sample from another chapter (‘The Magic of Self-Murder’) conveys the hectic vulgarity of his style: Lupe Velez, the ‘Mexican Spitfire’, was one of Hollywood’s livest wires. She was born Maria Guadeloupe Velez de Villalobos south of the border, educated in a San Antonio convent, and broke into ...”

“... him happy? A big yawn. That our society is sick? Another big yawn. That the Beautiful People are self-infatuated bores prepared to bang on interminably provided they get in on the act, whatever the act may be? ‘A son killing his mother,’ one of them says, ‘is Greek Tragedy, but this is worse – much much worse.’ Yes much much worse. As ...”

“... popularised a form of indebtedness which carries no stigma. Indeed so firmly have we accepted our self-image as a society of debtors that any increase in current interest rates is regularly greeted by the media as inherently deplorable, and one may look in vain for even a bare mention of the consequential increases payable to depositors in building societies ...”

“... religious maniac in The Virgin in the Garden, is shown painfully recovering his balance and self-confidence, and learning to experience the natural world with a Van Goghian intensity and clarity. While he develops both an artist’s vision and a scientist’s capacity to name what he sees (he is studying for A-Level Botany), his elder sister Stephanie ...”

“... a stylist, and the mannerisms eventually took over, and carried him at times beyond the bounds of self-parody. The most exaggerated example here is probably the first piece, in which he writes, for instance: If Le Penseur is trying to compose a melody, then he is very likely to be humming notes and sequences of notes, aloud, under his breath or in his head ...”

“... by Amundsen about bad weather conditions passes without comment; any complaint by Scott becomes ‘self-pity’. When the Norwegians take chances, Huntford discusses their ‘flamboyant fatalism’ and ‘audacity’; when Scott takes chances, he is called ‘reckless’. Fridjof Nansen’s supporters are given no epithet; Clements Markham’s are labelled ...”

“... from mere building and decorating. He can do so, because the artist is concerned not just with self-expression, but with the mastery of the problems of his craft. This kind of mastery, like excellence in cricket, is something that the interested and experienced spectator can recognise and evaluate. But a mere observer, without the involvement of the ...”

“... Much like Austen Chamberlain’s after-dinner fulminations, Crawford’s diary entries are windy, self-regarding and tortuously rambling. They boast a certain charm in the early sections, when the diarist is an Oxford Gladstonian, but grow increasingly tedious towards the end, when editorial control should have been applied more stringently. Of Crawford’s ...”

“... industry: but they are unlikely to accept that Chamberlain’s career was as unproblematic and self-explanatory as his narrative ...”

“... of the uniformed audience. This stereotype, based though it is on envy, resentment, snobbery and self-regard, contains some truth. Aronson argues that in America language is being continuously and routinely debased, so that the inhabitants find themselves increasingly in ‘a universe where everything is “FABULOUS!” so “nothing is anything.” ’ But ...”

“... will increase. It is important for politicians’ – and particularly candidates’ – self-respect to know that polls can sometimes be wrong: how we in the SDP hug ourselves with glee at the memory of the NOP poll two days before our famous victory in Portsmouth South. But for as long as we continue to try to squeeze three parties into a two-party ...”

“... An audience which will laugh at anything can teach you nothing about humour, which requires self-criticism. But when the peers stuck to questions and answers on serious points they were impressive, especially the women. Baroness Young almost got you convinced that the BBC’s Overseas Broadcasting services, far from declining under this government, had ...”

“... his ‘impolitic, if not wantonly reprehensible’ actions, says Aitchison, must be laid on his self-sufficiency. ‘The most noble minds and greatest heroes are liable to over-rate their own talents or by being intoxicated with success to commit themselves from inconsideration.’ However, when the Duke pulls himself together, the subaltern is ready with ...”

“... very pleased with themselves. They write in a wrapped-up private language as members of a mutual self-admiration society. They are addressing each other and a cadre of like persons, the total size of which must be extremely small.Some of the essays also display a bogus adolescent scholasticism of the Granny-look-how-clever-I-am sort which serves no purpose ...”

“... speak of the lack of tradition or of manners as having a bad effect on the American novel, but the self-made man is a far richer figure, from the novelist’s point of view, than the man of inherited wealth.’ These theories, while disagreeing about the possibility of the American novel of manners, agree that it has yet to happen. Yet whatever the theories ...”