“... one as considerably less silly when removed to the context of John McGahern’s fiction. One may never know why the narrator of McGahern’s new novel chooses to write pornography for a Dublin magazine – one may never quite believe that such a decent sad fellow would so choose – but, such is the prevalent ...”

“... Church for the sake of freedom and humanity end by flinging away freedom and humanity if only they may fight the Church … The secularists have not wrecked divine things; but the secularists have wrecked secular things, if that is any comfort to them.’ Many liberal warriors are so eager to fight anti-democratic fundamentalism that they end up dispensing ...”

“... portrait, and was instead painted some years later, or the Flight is not by Titian. The problem may not be evident to most visitors to the exhibition, simply because it is very hard, from the pictures on display, to gain a clear idea of what an early Titian looks like. This is a reflection of recent writing on the artist, in which the number and variety of ...”

“... only a gang of implausible heroes – the pistol-packing, cowboy-like racoon called Rocket may have the edge here – can save us. The days of the lone rescuer are gone. Well, not quite. There is Captain Marvel (Brie Larsen), who shot her part in Endgame before her own film came out earlier this year. There is a real doubt here. Captain Marvel saves ...”

“... beside the tracks are laced with dark, dirty and dangerous-looking cables, but at intervals we may glimpse clusters of bold letters sprayed in brilliant colours on the side of a derelict building or a metal shed. And where the high banks of brambles give way to old brick beside the Overground there are long sequences of competitive exhibits in this style ...”

“... Any garment can be placed somewhere along the gradient between the two. The carapace is stiff; it may have curves, but they will not be caused by the fabric’s resting passively on the body’s surface. A modern leader-of-the-nation’s lounge suit, Queen Elizabeth I’s pearl-embroidered dresses, the padded jackets and breeches of her courtiers – all ...”

“... With these thoughts of what is there and what isn’t, of what a carefully photographed world may show of what is not to be seen, we are already tracking something of what goes on in Hansen-Løve’s films, from All Is Forgiven (2007) to One Fine Morning (2022). It’s not incidental that she graduated from acting in films to writing about them to ...”

“... respond that Herbert went into the church only after his worldly career had stalled. That too may be an overstatement, since Herbert seems to have been moving toward the ministry for some years before he took orders in 1630. He was ordained deacon in 1624, and in 1626 received non-residential church appointments as canon of Lincoln Cathedral and ...”

“... It seems​ no more than a moment since the recent commemorations of May 1968 – fifty up – were superseded by the anniversary of the June Days in Paris in 1848. No celebrations or hand-wringings for that brief, explosive insurrection, a few days after the summer solstice 170 years ago. The uprising was triggered by the closure of a job-creation scheme set up under the provisional government of the day ...”

“... to be indicted more than any man that hath been brought to the bar this day ... Mr Justice May: Sirrah, you are an impudent fellow ... The Recorder: You are a factious fellow: I will set a mark on you ... The Mayor: I will cut his nose ... This did not sufficiently strengthen the jury, so they were hauled off to prison for the failure to ...”

“... 12 million (roughly the same as Coronation Street today). In retrospect and on paper his act may look dull and formulaic: he simply got uppity with a luckless straight man called Peter Brough and showered him with childish insults. But he was able to bring on a troop of co-stars – Max Bygraves (‘I’ve arrived … and to prove it, I’m ...”

“... flogged.’ Never mind that the modern house is a rarity even in the United States – ‘there may be two in town’ – or that the truly modern interior only turns up with any frequency in ‘watch the rich’ magazines. It is the ‘backyard barbecue’ and not the back-breaking Wassily chair which is ubiquitous. But the well-rehearsed sense of threat ...”

“... to be inaccurate or misleading, or both. Adequacy would be the issue, not official sanction. There may be heated debates among Kafka scholars, or among his translators, but they would not have the kind of charge that Freud translation seems to have. What could it be about Freud as a writer that can get people so worked up about translation; and worked up in a ...”

“... now comfortably immersed in the political consequences of the result – the tenor of a Theresa May government, the pressure on Jeremy Corbyn – and lawyers have been called on to consider the status of the referendum vote and the technicalities involved in triggering Article 50. But there has been very little in the way of constitutional analysis beyond ...”

“... instances, age discrimination and disability discrimination, in which even direct discrimination may be justified. Indirect discrimination, by contrast, may always have a legitimate basis that outweighs its damaging effect. Industrial safety, for instance, or administrative competence ...”