“... Peacock was a cold and self-indulgent eccentric. Elusive and strange the handsome lover of women may have been in his meditations on ‘free love’, he was passionate, too, in his family affections. His parents lived apart, and, perhaps, in such a man the affections would be more powerful than the passions. He did not go to the university, and his ...”

“... sojourn in Surinam: ‘But she was never afraid, she said. Never once hesitated; though her memory may have colored [sic] her original experience. She drank in every detail ...’ There is nothing resembling Maureen Duffy’s grasp (the result of deep study of the state papers, the point at which the amanuensis flinched) of the complex international, national ...”

“... of Landau’, which he started at the age of 25, and unsparingly sustained thereafter, may have been his greatest achievement. It was certainly a remarkable institution. There was no public qualification for admission. One just had to satisfy Landau personally that one had reached his ‘theoretical minimum’ – that is to say, that one knew all ...”

“... take care how you answer it – Be kind but make no promises and above all do not say a word that may imply any responsibility on your part for her future actions – I shall most likely not see your letter but I shall be very anxious for its ... contents for you are warmhearted ... & indeed sweetest very indiscreet ... pardon this but pray attend to it ...”

“... find a technology that worked. The greatest of his innovations was the Tariff Reform campaign. It may be that Chamberlain’s imperialism developed out of his alliance with the Conservative Party, but it was also a genuine exercise in statecraft. At the close of the 19th century Chamberlain represented a new school of thought, conscious of the growing ...”

“... whose savage pamphlet, often right about details and mostly wrong about the larger issues, may have helped to produce the fortunate effect of Nietzsche’s becoming a philosophical writer rather than remaining a philologist – though he was already set on that course before he published The Birth of Tragedy. Their commentary also provides information ...”

“... exception, wanted something from him for nothing.’ The idea that he was uniquely hard done by may have been painful, but for a practical man like Lowry it was not inconvenient. It enabled him, for instance, to do some very shady deals, signing reproductions of his paintings so that they could be sold at 20 times their value. He didn’t have any other ...”

“... house many spreading bottoms and stomachs clad in grey flannel or beige tweed, where legs may be seen protruding in maroon socks and ginger suede shoes, where shirts and blouses give off the dingy glare of nylon.’ Kitty develops a passion for a devious Christian history professor with a tragic romantic past. We watch her teaching, taking a class ...”

“... items. Plenty left for me and the missus if you work for the Administration. Some people may not like it, but boy oh boy just look at this suit, man – Savile Row, Germiston. And these shoes – Italian, made in Boksburg. And this tie! Everything of the best.’ ‘Get on with it, man,’ I said. ‘Well, first there’s the whole business of ...”

“... and further in the labs, using mirrors in interiors to reflect sunlight as a sole source ... There may be a small queue of cinematographers shuffling forward now with hands raised to claim equal credit in these endeavours. What is true is that Almendros used the methods as thoroughly and successfully as anyone, and was bold about applying them in major ...”

“... it pay off comes from his harder-headed mother. As a provider, Dave is wayward. He gambles and may womanise – Donald discovers a suspicious photograph. Around 1937, he loses his business and the family has to move to a mean apartment on the Concourse. Edgar gradually comes to see through his father in an affectionate kind of way. Meanwhile the mother ...”

“... contemporary medical beliefs are rendered sound by a tactic which at times amounts to bullying. It may be the case, as he says, ‘that the entry of the chemical industry into the medicines trade has brought immense benefits in terms of lives saved and suffering,’ but it is brutal demagoguery to announce this as a truth which ‘nobody but a fool or a bigot ...”

“... genially delighted side of MacCaig’s poetic personality is one that many of his readers may wish he had cultivated more assiduously. It is this that lends distinction to poems that otherwise squander their energies in laborious, quasi-philosophical word-spinning. In ‘Rhu Mor’, for example, from the book Rings on a Tree (1968), the poet attempts ...”

“... the Manchus. The ‘sustained and withering artillery techniques’ that Wakeman ascribes to them may be an overstatement, but he does give some vivid examples of the successful use of cannon fire against walled cities or massed troops in a range of battles from Yuzizhang in north China down to Guangzhou in the far south-east. The thorough documentation that ...”

“... metaphysics from its throne with the gentle mockery implied by the principle of tolerance. We may make our comprehensive and philosophical theories of the world as we choose, subject to the constraints of consistency and economy. The natural sciences within their specialised domains are constrained by their experiments and their observations. Philosophers ...”