“... his admiration. Now Carlyle met and disapproved of Lamb, Godwin, Coleridge and Wordsworth. Francis Jeffrey of the Edinburgh Review and Charles Buller were old friends, and Irving too, though Irving – now a popular preacher absorbed in miracle cures and speaking in tongues (‘hoo-ing and ha-ing’) – was making Carlyle increasingly uneasy. Mill he had met ...”

“... after the start of a Police Complaints Authority investigation into the case, but only a few weeks after the change of government, the final space began to be filled. The Lawrence case was a justice opportunity too tempting for New Labour to resist. It provided a be-spoke setting for the all-singing, all-dancing talents of the fresh regime, showing Blair ...”

“... barriers on foot), and looked forward to my Friday afternoon appointment at Gate 1A. It had taken weeks to set this up, but I wasn’t surprised when, a couple of hours before I set off for the Blackwall Tunnel, the tour of inspection was cancelled. Deferred satisfaction. Future bliss. That’s what this gig is all about. It’s a Calvinist package. Suffer ...”

“... dining out. 11 April. From my notebooks: ‘I never fathomed the lav and we were there two weeks. It could never make up its mind when to flush. Well, you can’t be standing there playing Russian roulette with it can you?’ Reading a letter: A. Love and Kierkegaard? B. (snatching it) Love and Kind Regards. My life does seem right staccato ...”

“... would be hard put to refuse. Both had their origins in what were, for Lincolnshire, a strange few weeks in 2007. In a bloodless localist uprising in May, Boston’s mainstream parties were voted out of office by a single-issue movement demanding a new bypass. The Boston Bypass Independents won 25 out of 32 seats at the local elections, wiping out ...”

“... or by Kingsley or Harrison Ainsworth, or even by the much despised and now completely forgotten Jeffrey Farnol, whose daintiness deeply offended me, I would pick up, and starting on page 1, I would race through it as fast as my eyes could carry me, until some demand, like washing my hands, or getting ready to go out, forced me to put it down, and any other ...”