“... of great men.We need to straighten the record, not only for reasons of accuracy but because it may help us to understand better Franklin’s years of public service. For the characteristics of his political career – immersion in detail, alertness to the evidence, readiness to be corrected or converted, perseverance, intense practicality and extraordinary ...”

“... He now believes that ‘these remarkable molecules might be wasted on the young, that they may have more to offer us later in life, after the cement of our mental habits and everyday behaviours has set.’ What they have ‘to offer’, once leached of the emotional intensity with which it is delivered, may resemble ...”

“... number dropped (to 17.2 million). If a single woman is pregnant and decides to have the baby, she may face a considerable fine, and the sum varies in different regions. She may have difficulty registering the baby in the hukou (household registration) system, which is tied to education and social security ...”

“... Asia and who are most likely to have been the speakers of proto-Indo-European. Their success may have been owed to an efficient economic system involving wheeled vehicles, horses and oxen, and the extensive felling of forests to turn Europe into a steppe-like environment. They may also have brought the plague into ...”

“... human intelligence, ‘since the superintelligence is better at cognitive work than we are, it may see past the errors and confusions that cloud our thinking.’ That’s hard to argue with, but I can’t help thinking about the influence of computers on chess players. They see past our errors and confusions on the board, and they certainly help human ...”

“... to represent deities on film without veering into Clash of the Titans silliness, so Nolan may have been sensible to leave them out. Even Zendaya’s underwritten Athena turns out to be a vulnerable victim of war, or perhaps a projection of Odysseus’ conscience – not a scheming and bloodthirsty war goddess. Other goddesses appear in cameo ...”

“... in her case it’s probably to do with early memories, with having been adopted. Stein thinks it may have to do with all the drugs.David Bowie, Harry says, ‘described the music business as a mental hospital: you’d only be allowed out to promote something or make another record – then back in you’d go.’ In 1977, he invited them to support Iggy Pop ...”

“... This prediction was less on the money: the promised privatisation has now been postponed, and may never materialise. Perhaps it was always a fantasy, but the fact that it was announced in the pages of the Economist gave it the kind of credibility that investors wanted to see. ‘This is a man to do business with,’ the Financial Times declared. ‘MBS ...”

“... and had a brother, John, who was also a scrivener (i.e. professional scribe) – though his role may well have extended to the abridging and interweaving of the two playscripts. (John had been apprenticed to Francis Kyd, father of the dramatist Thomas Kyd, which offers a faint literary backdrop to Robert’s activities.) The use of his name on the title page ...”

“... down an ace. He was out to find something wrong with my story. ‘Probably he is no good. He may steal your money.’ I saw of course that, in his world, the term ‘agent’ would cover some broad, unsavoury categories. But what about ‘Import-Export’, as written on his business card? That didn’t sound to me like the essence of probity. I wanted to ...”

“... rule and guide … so properly [do they] belong to a master for the time of their seruice, as he may not only keepe them himselfe for his owne seruice, but also passe them ouer, and giue, or sell them to another … The customes and statutes of our land doe also permit masters to make ouer their seruants from one to one: and on their death-beds to bequeath ...”

“... fan complains that he can’t concentrate: the actress has left him ‘reeling’. The reader may be reeling too at this point – at the sheer freaky incongruity of it all. Sarah and Sigmund: the imp-brain runs amok. Odd counterfactuals begin to form in the cerebrum. What if the inventor of psychoanalysis had ‘seen’ Bernhardt: not just in the ...”

“... but it has failed to address some of the worst healthcare disparities in the world – and what may well be the highest global rates of childhood malnutrition and stunting. In An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions, Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen consider the plight of hundreds of millions of Indians who still live in poverty, often as a consequence ...”

“... access and information, but not so much I have to pretend I am ready to support our boys come what may. So I tell him what I think, that it is the wrong war at the wrong time, but that if I was an Iraqi, I’d be longing for the Americans to come, and hoping they wouldn’t kill me, and hoping they would leave as soon as Saddam was gone. Vernon is friendly ...”

“... own work. Critical reception has an effect on their judgment, as does simple perversity; and they may affect to love the most overlooked of their progeny. Thus Evelyn Waugh used to claim that his favourite novel was Helena. Though Salammbô was a greater financial and social success than Madame Bovary – it became a meme, and the inspiration for ballgowns ...”