“... to quietism – ‘suffering is the badge; one accepts it as the mark of fate.’ Such an attitude may even account for the ‘extreme passivity’ of the Jews in the death camps. ‘The fatalism that comes out of the religious tradition violates one’s conception of a personal autonomy ... The Orthodox view of Judaism is too constricted ... to feel at home ...”

“... of those cunts have lived up there. What about the fucking Soho Vikings, eh ... And so on. It may not look much on the page, and has perhaps been imperfectly transcribed (Sayle’s-pace is about fifteen words a second) – but think how enfeebled it would be without the ‘dirt’. As Rick Mayall (on the Comic Strip bill as one half of a duo called ...”

“... so comfortless. Tracy seems to be saying, not ‘There is no hope for us,’ nor even ‘There may be hope somewhere, but not for us,’ but ‘Only when we’ve lost hope altogether can we begin.’ Begin what? That’s another ...”

“... thrown into prison for publishing an expurgated translation of La Terre. Dostoevsky, it appears, may not have been so much Dostoevskian as merely accurate. Growing up in Victorian Russia (Victorian by chronology, though hardly in spirit) must have been a strenuous training in the acceptance of contradictions – licence and deprivation, effeteness and ...”

“... pathetically out of his depth as minister. Much the same was true of the convertibility crisis. By May 1947, the Treasury knew that import cuts were needed to halt the dollar drain, and warned accordingly. Again and again, ministers dithered, until, in the end, the crisis forced their hands. After 1947, however, there were no more horror stories of this ...”

“... to throw some light on it might be considered Foster’s central endeavour: whatever Petrarch may have said to the contrary, ‘it is inconceivable that an artist of his calibre should have spent so much time and trouble on materials he regarded as of only minor importance.’ Indeed, Foster hints at a change of heart in Petrarch himself, a re-evaluation ...”

“... book as a vehicle for Oz’s morality, although it could perhaps do with a few more jokes. And it may be that the novel form is in principle a better instrument than the polemical essay through which to magnify the virtues of patience and moderation. At any rate, A Perfect Peace succeeds in presenting Oz’s own political case with a subtlety that is beyond ...”

“... else about Vidal, are dear to Vidal’s heart’). These differences in length and manner may have something to do with the exiguous spaces in which English, as opposed to American, journalists have to operate: but there is also a difference of temperament, of which one might take a rough measure by comparing, say, ‘Shooting an Elephant’ with The ...”

“... to the best in poetry. In all the arts, there are broad movements which are inexorable. You may choose to swim against the tide, and perhaps do it very well, but you can’t turn it back; and English poets for half a century have mostly chosen to swim against what my hunch as a literary historian tells me will prove to have been the major tide of poetry ...”

“... too, and so extends Anglo-American cultural relations beyond the literary. Though, indeed, it may be said to have left ‘literature’ quite behind, his book seems to have influenced at least one work of the imagination. John Schlesinger’s film Yanks seems at times almost to be arranging its scenes so as to tick off chapters in Longmate (the rain, the ...”

“... her soul’. This much is common ground among historians of Anne’s reign. Though they may differ in their emphases, depending on whether they choose to stress the monarchical or the parliamentary elements in the constitution, there is agreement that Anne the Queen was very far from being a negligible force in government and politics, and was ...”

“... were as sound as a Bow bell. He could not find it in himself to dislike the upper classes: ‘They may be an abuse, but they are often as like as not intelligent and amusing.’ But he couldn’t stand the middle classes. This clarity of definition surrounds the man and his policies, as well as the challenges which faced him, and the West, at the time. Imagine ...”

“... hand, it is quietly and consistently funny, and so full of Powell’s characteristic note that it may help us to see what that note is. Let’s start with what seems to be a difficulty. The book is written in a blurred prose which is the stylistic equivalent of talking with marbles in your mouth. He early expressed the conviction, a tenable one, that he ...”

“... Bey, a pair of Tweedledum/dee seducers with the scantiest emotional range. The heart of the novel may be pretty soft, but in other parts it is alive and comically ...”

“... that he was feeling something of the pride and joy felt by the Poles themselves: their masters may be puppets of Moscow, but a Pole was now running the Catholic Church. He was always in the forefront of any action to assist the Eastern European dissidents. Solidarity was obviously very close to his heart. His most sustained involvement in practical affairs ...”