“... Cook or John Prescott or Margaret Beckett, as they did for Blair. The extent of last year’s May landslide is itself proof of the extraordinary shift in popular opinion. The huge majority was not expected or sought by the New Labour leader. They know that at least part of it reflected something much more fundamental than a change in Labour Party ...”

“... small-minded newspapers like the Daily Mail: these are the villains of the Wilde story, but they may have more in common with us than its hero. Homophobia, for instance, is a modern phenomenon: before Wilde, there was really no such figure as the homosexual. Victorian men could be intimate without being labelled Mary-Anns, Inverts, Uranians or ...”

“... must be conducted within three hundred metres from the shoreline. Britons on holiday may have sampled these specialised marine spas. They will certainly have noticed that the best of the old inland spas of Europe have looked after themselves singularly well, making the most of their setting, climate and relaxed attitudes, even if in the off ...”

“... via Muhandis via Soleimani). The US tends to euphemise the process in both cases, although this may be changing. In a paper published in 2019 by the US army, ‘In Pursuit of a General Theory of Proxy Warfare’, Major Amos Fox argued that the US doesn’t talk about its proxies in frank enough terms. ‘Phrases such as security force assistance, training ...”

“... deeply, in every sense, in books as things to handle, dress up and display. In his diary for 15 May 1660, he records visiting ‘a bookseller’s and bought for the love of the binding three books’ – some French psalms, Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum, Thomas Farnaby’s Index Rhetoricus – and on 3 February 1665 notes with a mix of pride and ...”

“... up. Perhaps this won’t last. The website of the Stroke Association warns that although aphasics may not recover the ability to speak in full sentences, ‘it’s usually possible for other people to understand what they mean. This can be very ...”

“... and an appearance on Desert Island Discs. Only three minutes of the programme survive, which may be just as well. ‘The most important thing in my life,’ he told Roy Plomley, ‘has always been sport, you see: hunting, shooting and fishing. When that permits, we do a little farming. And when that permits, we do a little writing or ...”

“... millennials prepared for a global systemic catastrophe? Or even a life without smartphones? They may not be. But then, who ...”

“... of global capitalism. In the fight against Aids, hunger, lack of water or global warming, we may recognise the urgency of the problem, but there is always time to reflect, to postpone decisions. The main conclusion of the meeting of world leaders in Bali to talk about climate change, hailed as a success, was that they would meet again in two years to ...”

“... bushes of fine dust smoking on the skyline, and watchPlanes high in blue, dry air, then hear devil-may-care shouts, whistled dance tunes,Metallic clangs, bangs, long, long seconds of machine-gun sputter.Quit now of HQ’s bullshit,As tank commander my rank means my place is rightOf the dark-muzzled six-pounder, peering through the stark periscope:Very small ...”

“... who heard it from a groom who heard it from a court servant) that Alfonso’s rebellious mother may be preparing to depart Ferrara for France in secret, taking his sisters with her. Later, in the castello, it’s Emilia again who informs her, reluctantly, of the extent of Alfonso’s power and his willingness to use it, in the shape of his violent reprisals ...”

“... sorcery from the island.’ The first evidence of sorcery was discovered by the chief in late May. He found a stone which he said belonged to men who wanted to ‘damage the community’. The same night, some children spotted a cat, which, encouraged by the adults, they identified as a shape-shifting sorcerer. A church elder arranged a prayer patrol to ...”

“... not that Vidal-Naquet is uninterested in exploring why the ‘malady’ took such a hold. It may have to do with politics and imperialism: a Spanish Atlantis provides Spain with a right to rule Atlantic territories. With nationalism: a Swedish Atlantis provides the Scandinavians with a glorious submerged antiquity. Or with anti-semitism: Atlantis ...”

“... city, the Biennale, in 1895. Selvatico must have known his time was short: construction began in May 1894, only a month after the idea was announced at a meeting of artists and writers at Caffé Florian, starting with the demolition of the Tommaso Meduna riding school, which housed army horses and an elephant called Toni. The proposed site, the Giardini on ...”

“... killing of 13 demonstrators in October 2000, to Benjamin Netanyahu’s election day warning last May: ‘Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organisations are busing them out.’ The spectre of ‘Arab voters’ was hardly new: the Israeli right has never looked fondly on Arabs exercising their voting rights, unless they can be ...”