“... have normal life.’ The racist mood in Israel absolves the government from any inhibitions that may have restricted its actions in the past. Now ecologists, industrialists and academics have been drafted in. The Jewish National Fund is behind the initiative, along with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. The aim of diminishing the ...”

“... The hasbara aspect of the Gaza operation was put in train several months before the invasion. In May 2008 four French-speaking Israelis were selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organisation, to visit Switzerland, France and Belgium, where, as the Jewish Agency spokesperson put it, they were ...”

“... as much subject matter as territory: the murder of the mathematician Hypatia (‘Bishop Cyril, may you be tormented for ever’); Harwood’s father as a young officer in 1940, ‘having to shoot one of his own men,/his stomach ripped open beyond saving,/begging to be put out of his agony’; a Polish table set for guests with ‘fresh baked ...”

“... total number of votes lost in 2012 because of long waits range from 500,000 to 700,000 – but it may have been many more than that. A study from Ohio State University, using data collected by the Orlando Sentinel, found that 200,000 registered voters in Florida alone might not have cast ballots because they thought it would take too long – to say nothing ...”

“... 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 ...”

“... 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 ...”

“... 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 ...”

“... 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 ...”

“... marine blues win out. The choice of words seems to indicate the attitude. ‘Arenas for freedom’ may have been the phrase ideologues liked to reach for in the heyday of British abstraction. But what they really meant was pastorals: glorious, gratuitous ...”

“... Who can see the green earth any moreAs she was by the sources of Time?Who imagines her fields as they layIn the sunshine, unworn by the plough?Matthew Arnold, ‘The Future’Barley field, cut, dried,Brewed, poured, you’re so garrulousLong after you’ve gone.Old English riddle from the Exeter Book                    I                        1What rutting beast snorts‘Let me give you some pointers’Then trots through the mist?                        2In the beginningWas the Word, and the Word wasParsed into creatures ...”

“... Perhaps he delighted too much in discriminating. The sheer, restless pleasure in knowing more may have been too absorbing. Perhaps Bloomsbury’s cult of conversation and friends was too absorbing. I suspect him, too, of perfectionism: he was overcome by his admiration for the talents of others and, having means, he felt a guilt in earning money. Perhaps ...”

“... 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 ...”

“... Pakistan is preparing for elections in May and June, and an all-party caretaker government will soon take over to supervise the process. Meanwhile, things continue as eventfully as usual. There has been yet another clash between the Supreme Court and the Zardari government; a previously obscure Muslim cleric returned from Canada to lead what he hoped would be a ‘million-strong’ anti-corruption march to Islamabad; and two factories in Lahore and Karachi have burned to a cinder with the workers still inside ...”

“... a pleasing seal-like sleekness – the wrinkled, or pale northerners, pink or sunblock-pallid, may feel the need to cover up.As we sat at a Paris café table, the most striking passing figure was an old woman – thin to the point of emaciation. At every shop window she checked out her reflection and her several diaphanous layers of bold, floral-printed ...”

“... 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 ...”