“... by that needless bristle at the end, a prickly little warning. Northern Ireland (for which you may of course read the ‘North of Ireland’) has 18 seats at Westminster, and has recently seen two events with significant political ramifications: the robbery of £26.5 million from the Northern Bank in Belfast on 20 December, and on 30 January the murder of ...”

“... each other. Since the City & South London was, uniquely for the era, a one-class railway, this may have led to revolutionary moments of cross-class contact, but hardly to gratitude. When the Central Line opened in 1900, it introduced hanging straps and proper windows, but drew renewed complaints of bad air. A bureaucrat in the Sudan Political Service said ...”

“... in prayer. Beneath him hands clutch at a blazing heart. ‘Love joined them while they lived. May the earth join them in their burial. Gostlin’s heart belongs still, Legge, to you.’ The college annalist noted that Gostlin had lived with Legge coniunctissime, ‘in most conjoined fashion’. With its unprovocative title, its brass-rubbings and its ...”

“... in the region, and it will for a long time be a domineering competitor on the world market. It may be that only the overseas ‘Chinese’ will remain as an enduring miracle ingredient, though one with fragile aspects. If most of the conditions that made the ‘miracle’ possible have passed, or soon will be passing, this does not necessarily mean that ...”

“... the odds you would have got in 2008 on a future world in which Donald Trump was president, Theresa May was prime minister, Britain had voted to leave the European Union, and Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party – which to many close observers of Labour politics is actually the least likely thing on that list. The common factor explaining all these ...”

“... the geometry that results, ‘practical geometry’, is ‘evidently a natural science; we may, in fact, regard it as the most ancient branch of physics.’ That the theorems of Euclidean geometry follow from its axioms is certain and indisputable, but the question of whether the practical geometry of the universe is Euclidean or not can only be ...”

“... her instructor, and felt a tremendous sense of gratitude to dear, old exasperating Henry James. He may not, as Quiller-Couch nastily remarked, have really understood that conversation on the manor house lawn, but he knew his Americans to the core of their romantic ...”

“... generally fear for his son’s stability in an adult and not comfortably Jewish world. The father may not be as crazy as he sounds; when asked to explain his anxiety, he replies: ‘It’s about life, where the tiniest misstep can have tragic consequences.’ ‘Oh, Christ,’ Marcus says, ‘you sound like a fortune cookie.’ He will come to see that his ...”

“... does not seem to care much about the happiness of her children when making matches.’ This may be cherished along with some other unflinching obiter dicta: ‘many a widow, thinking that the funeral, if not the reading of the will, would mark the end of all that could be expected from her in the way of public griefs, has found that some problems are ...”

“... in Ireland’. One of the wounded delivery men was Polish. His involvement in the latest violence may be a hint of things to come, as large-scale immigration into Northern Ireland disturbs the integrity of an ancient quarrel – or at least varies the usual pattern of confrontation. The Orange Order has been intimidating Catholics for two hundred years, but ...”

“... friend of Micòl’s ailing brother; and the narrator eventually comes to suspect that he may also be Micòl’s secret lover. (That conundrum is one among others in the novel that are never resolved; all that is certain about Malnate, ultimately, is that he is called up to serve in the Italian army, is dispatched to the Russian front, and never ...”

“... rebellion’, but according to Amnesty International more than 50 protesters may have been killed when the police and army opened fire on the crowd. The government blamed the riot on ethnic separatists ‘cloaked in religion’ who deceived people into taking part ‘in their plot to destroy national unity and overthrow the ...”

“... their legs spinning faster, like the Road Runner out over the canyon drop. I think they knew.In May I listen to someone from Man Investments tell me that bankers don’t read novels (‘Really? How interesting’). I ask him what is coming ‘down the pipes’, because this is how business people describe the future, these days, and he says, ‘What is the ...”

“... and France. In the history curriculum of the Soviet Union, the modern world began in 1649. These may have been outsized, unsustainable claims, but they shared common ground with the views of every preceding generation. Britain had been defined by its revolution and each subsequent political, social and religious movement could trace its origins to ...”

“... attitude seems to have caught the public mood recently. The postmodern age of sexual puritanism may be nearing its end; and what better historical model for its transformation could exist than the era that rejected ...”