“... which, by definition, ideals come before money. The old notion of voters acting out of enlightened self-interest falls short in explaining this; but there are too many ideas, there is too much economics, in the rhetoric of the populists to say, as it’s fashionable to say, that voters are acting ‘emotionally’. The rise of Law and Justice and the Brexit ...”

“... it was the machinery that occupied one’s attention. As Brooke-Rose remarks, narratology was self-reflexive in the best postmodern way. I think Forster must be excused from showing the slightest interest in the subject. There is, however, a charge more difficult to evade. Aspects of the Novel has remarkably little to say about Forster’s novelist ...”

“... to widely accepted notions of human rights, to international law and to the principle of national self-determination. And it is hardly the only state that has faced sharp criticism on these grounds. In the autumn of 2001, and especially in the spring of 2002, the Bush administration tried to reduce anti-American sentiment in the Arab world and undermine ...”

“... sex’ – ‘Two major sluts like us,’ Callen said, ‘are just the ones to do it’ – and self-published How to Have Sex in an Epidemic in June 1983, which was covered by the New York Review of Books and became an underground success. ‘Overnight,’ France writes, ‘in gay neighbourhoods around the country, rubbers took off’ – or went on ...”

“... of government agencies and capitalists and investors, making up an economy balanced between the self-contained and the globalised. By 1998, that was gone. Decades of half-hearted nationalisation, fanatical privatisation and unfettered globalisation had left the Highlands with few choices if it wanted to get manufacturers to set up shop.In ...”

“... intimately told me it was quickly evident that a great variety of community leaders, some of them self-appointed, were ‘taking charge’. She told me their attitude was very much, ‘these are our people, you people fucked up, sit back and take the blame,’ even though all kinds of services were being provided by the council. I have many witnesses who ...”

“... from the government to the afflicted banks. (‘Afflicted’ probably isn’t the right word. ‘Self-afflicted’?) The government’s money has been given in return for various different kinds of shareholding and stake, involving distinctions between ‘ordinary’ and ‘preference’ shares, exquisitely boring distinctions which I don’t propose to ...”

“... the whole no-man’s-land, like the border between East Germany and West Germany, is jammed with self-manned machine-guns, touch-mines and electric traps, all triggered by electronic devices. Luckily, his escape intent was a non-event. Arenas was able to leave the lethal zone and steal himself back to Cuban soil – and the prospect of gaol again. Being ...”

“... is dying and you talk about discos.’ ‘It’s all right,’ said Midgley. ‘Here, go get your self a coffee,’ said Hartley, giving him a pound. Aunty Kitty looked away. Hartley and his family were going. They were congregated outside the lift. ‘You’ll wait, I expect,’ said Hartley. ‘Oh yes,’ said Midgley. ‘I want to be here.’ ‘You want ...”