“... people concerned with the particular case, cannot grapple with such a wide range of problems. He may even be unaware that they exist: he will certainly be unable to explore their implications. Reforms of this magnitude require legislation. Parliament can ensure that it is properly advised and that its Bill is fully considered and subject to wide-ranging ...”

“... its central problem will still remain a mystery to the reader who is not an Ilongot and may be searching for materialist arguments to complement Rosaldo’s analysis of Ilongot thought, her book achieves a rich and definite level of understanding which unites the description of social process and cultural meaning in a single mode of ...”

“... Erasmus’ concept of self-knowledge). The painting was a gift to a Roman Catholic, though, and may be, as the catalogue suggests, ‘a painted argument in their intellectual exchange of ideas’. The volume of Dürer’s journals that describes his trip to Antwerp in 1520 is the only one that survives (in two 17th-century copies). We don’t know if there ...”

“... for a brief period while the museum that houses it is being refurbished – by which time Macron may well no longer be president of France. A lot of his promises seem to turn out like that, a lot less generous than they at first appear. Before Bayeux we’d been in Bourbon-l’Archambault, not far from Vichy, where we visited the ruined castle that was once ...”

“... from the Latin lemures, meaning ‘ghost’. It is terrifyingly possible that several subspecies may become exactly that. Perhaps the most astonishing fact about lemurs is that they survived at all. Madagascar was part of Gondwanaland until 180 million years ago, when the supercontinent began to split and the island began to drift eastwards from Africa. But ...”

“... the property of Lady Marguerite Allan, who took it with her when she sailed from New York on 1 May 1915 on board the Lusitania. Six days later, off the Irish coast, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship, which sank in 18 minutes with the loss of 1198 lives. Among the survivors were Lady Marguerite and her maid, who, professional to the last, kept a firm hold ...”

“... was born in Sicily around 1430 and died there in 1479. He seems to have been trained in Naples. He may have travelled in northern Europe and he certainly worked in Venice in the 1470s. It is not clear just where, and from whom, he learned to paint in the manner of Jan van Eyck, using oil paint laid on in transparent layers which give a depth and brilliance ...”

“... blossomed from a minor discussion group into the engine for the continent’s Islamisation.’ You may never have heard of the Euro-Arab Dialogue, but that only goes to show how powerful it is. And according to Niall Ferguson, ‘future historians will one day regard her coinage of the term “Eurabia” as prophetic. Those who wish to live in a free society ...”

“... among the circles, picnic, dance, play instruments and celebrate ‘as many of our ancestors may have done for thousands of years’. The Megalithic Portal website’s vagueness is justified. Nobody knows what rituals Stonehenge was built for, and the celebrations in their present form date back a mere seven years to a House of Lords ruling under the ...”

“... and wrote: ‘I am extending the detention of the defendant; but I feel uneasy about it as it may concern an innocent man.’ After this intervention the judge decided to extend the detention for only 18 days, rather than the 22 requested. The defendant remains in an Israeli prison still not knowing what he is accused of or when he will be released. His ...”

“... and falling back out of space like a huge breeze block, are inherently dangerous things to do. It may be that in time the shuttle’s failure rate – one crash for every 50 flights – will come not to seem, by the harsh standards of manned space exploration, outlandishly high. Nasa might do well to stress this riskiness, instead of acting all ...”

“... online can apply to author-direct.co.uk, a new website launched at the Hay-on-Wye festival in May. It goes live some time this month. Laurence Middleton Jones, the company’s managing director, believes he is in a position to find ‘tomorrow’s writers today’, while at the same time describing electronic publishing as a ‘refreshing step into the ...”

“... the assault ‘hubristic’; the Daily Mail and Sunday Times put it down to envy. All of which may be right, but that doesn’t mean that Fischer is necessarily wrong. The reaction to his piece suggests that the norm is a complacent atmosphere of mutual congratulation,* as novelists tread warily around each other on the interminable circuit of ...”

“... seduction and betrayal.’ Well, OK, but I still feel cheated. Opening with James Hewitt may be a tacit sop to those of us who like our books to deliver what they promise on the cover. Farndale makes up for (nearly) everything, however, with a terrific anecdote about Truman Capote and Marlon Brando. CAPOTE: You tell him about yourself, and slowly ...”

“... its worst ever electoral reverse in the local elections due to be held in South Africa on 18 May. The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, seems poised to win not only Cape Town, its main base, but to gain seats right across the country. In the Western Cape the DA will probably win a majority of towns and cities; it will make inroads in the ...”