“... This episode, taking place scarcely more than two years before the Nazis seized power, was a straw in the wind: it made clear that American movie companies could be threatened with the loss of the German market. When Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, the consequences for Hollywood were soon evident. The Nazis not only purged Jews from Germany’s ...”

“... publication.For Wainaina, Caine’s reluctance to accept digital submissions was the final straw, after years of frustration with the African publishing scene. In the 1960s, the editors of Heinemann’s African Writers Series had dreamed of sending books from warehouse to bookshops to readers across the continent but found themselves defeated by ...”

“... is like a ballroom without women. Then I remember foot and mouth and put out more viricide and straw. William Youatt, whose The Pig: A Treatise on the Breeds, Management, Feeding and Medical Treatment of Swine of 1847 is still the standard work on the British pig, prints many anecdotes of the docility, gentleness, affection, cleanliness, intelligence, even ...”

“... in the colony the hard way. Carey set himself against Dickens more explicitly nine years later, in Jack Maggs (1997), an imaginative reworking of Great Expectations. Maggs, a thief transported to Australia, has since made a fortune, a substantial part of which he has been paying to a young man in England, called Phipps, whom he encountered briefly as a child ...”

“... Quarantine and Inspection Service has found bedbugs at airports in woven cane baskets and woven straw bags – as well as on roses from Kenya, in baggage from Europe, and on an airport inspection bench. So it is clear that bedbugs can hitch-hike long distances and ride about town. But how good they are at very local travel remains undetermined. Urban myths ...”

“... as the antidote: Oh! give us once again the wishing-cap Of Fortunatus, and the invisible coat Of Jack the Giant-killer, Robin Hood, And Sabra in the forest with St George! The move from wonder to instruction might seem an inevitable consequence of the move from oral to literary tales. But even a highly literate tale like Alice in Wonderland cannot be ...”

“... the phrase is frequently used without proper definition, Hexter too easily knocks down his men of straw. Some historians argued that ‘the middle class’ ruled England in the 16th century; others argued that ‘the middle class’ came to power in the 17th century. Both statements cannot be true, but it does not therefore follow that both are false. The ...”

“... conditions, you might think, that every architect faces on any public commission. The final straw at Cambridge was an unforeseen planning problem. A last-minute hitch in the acquisition of a neighbouring property meant that a building designed to expose its glazed elevations to the northeast had to be swivelled 90 degrees to face south-east. Stirling ...”

“... Unless my gaoler picks the longest of a thousand straws, I shall be shot. If my gaoler picks that straw, there would be something to be explained. It would not be enough to say, ‘This result was as likely as any other.’ In the first lottery, nothing special happened: whatever the result, someone’s life would be saved. In this second lottery, the result ...”

“... They would not, as Englishmen, have to face one another. Jeremiah Bembo, who ghosts as Solomon Straw, public executioner, state functionary, initiates us in the mysteries of his craft. As is traditional, he sketches his childhood, family background, picaresque beginnings. Nothing random, nothing wasted. Every anecdote fits into the cumulative ...”

“... but the following Wednesday he turned up in a Baltimore tavern, nearly comatose and wearing a straw hat and ill-fitting clothes, sans waistcoat and neckcloth. He was taken to a local hospital, and spent the next day in a delirium. The resident physician noted his ‘constant talking – and vacant converse with spectral and imaginary objects on the ...”

“... the characters who say or imagine them. There are a suspicious number of these characters around. Jack in Before She Met Me and Oliver in the adultery-in-Stoke-Newington books exist largely as outlets for hyper-eloquent humour, and their annoyingness is only partly alleviated by the fact that everyone else in the novels seems to find them pretty ...”

“... diary of the war years, a fascinating historical document in which she relates learning to weave straw rope, stack sheaves and make pele, or cwlwm (anthracite dust mixed with clay that was used as fuel). These anthropological descriptions are interspersed with thoughts on subjects as varied as bulls, coracles (on which she published an essay) and the ...”

“... Once back on the road we were caught behind a lorry that was swaying badly and looked in danger of jack-knifing. As we pulled closer to overtake, there was a strong smell of petrol. Diesel was pouring out of a tank under the cab, slicking one set of wheels with fuel and causing the vehicle to slide. The driver powered on, leaving the trailer swaying behind ...”

“... impertinent biographers through the courts (like J.D. Salinger). They will (like T.S. Eliot or Jack London) set up vigilant estates to stand like pyramids over the author’s reputation and defy any tomb-robbing researcher. They will themselves incinerate mountains of correspondence (as did Dickens) or enjoin survivors to do it for them (like Auden). They ...”