“... stage as it was in life. ‘Dear 338171,’ Coward wrote to the shy T.E. Lawrence in the RAF. ‘May I call you 338?’ Not are Coward’s theatrical putdowns (‘AMANDA: Heaven preserve me from nice women. SYBIL: Your reputation will do that’) as bitchy as some of the real-life improvisations like ‘Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow.’ Where Coward’s humour ...”

“... he grows older, he becomes more attached to the values of Athens as against those of Sparta: It may seem paradoxical to add that for that very reason my admiration for the spirit and institutions of this country grew incomparably stronger in the years 1939 to 1940, when I suppose the British showed the greatest fidelity in their history to the Spartan ...”

“... for the episode. On what was Lippmann’s realism based? We must rule out the disenchantment that may come with deep reflection on experience, just as we must rule out serious scholarship or learning. He cannot be said ever to have tried to identify the sources of US foreign policy, or even to have investigated the conceptual framework in which the nation ...”

“... essay on ‘The Use of Pictures and Other Works of Art in Elementary Schools’ (1884), which ‘may afterwards be modified, but never quite got rid of’. Familiarity with beautiful things could make poor families less likely to drink and gamble, he argued, because it would reveal ‘to many children who live in the crowded parts of large towns some of the ...”

“... they appear as squires (scutiferi) or yeomen (valetti). On the battlefield, the work of a minstrel may have overlapped with that of a herald – issuing proclamations, carrying messages, identifying the dead – and some men seem to have done both jobs.Minstrels provided art as entertainment, but also, in a time before the mechanical production and ...”

“... goals. He was ‘cynically realistic’, Patterson writes, in his pursuit of ‘real ideals’. He may have been ruthless, but in a corrupt world it was better to trample legislative tradition and get bills through than, as Long said, ‘sit back in my office, all nice and proper, and watch ’em die’. Patterson acknowledges Long’s reputation as a ...”

“... for two decades ‘as a courtesan, in the precise, centuries-old definition of the word’. She may have lived like Madame de Pompadour but she lacked her purpose and personal influence. Pamela was drawn to power itself, rather than what power could achieve, and had no developed politics of her own. She could easily have been a Republican, if she had ...”

“... a pretty good book, probably Leonard’s most popular, and easy to market to new readers, who may have seen Quentin Tarantino’s reasonably faithful film adaptation. I say ‘reasonably’ because, although Tarantino’s streamlined version of the story follows the novel closely, it replaces Jackie Burke, the book’s white heroine, with Jackie ...”

“... earliest work did not necessarily have these qualities. His 1882 painting of a flamenco dancer may have reminded admiring critics of Goya, but his 1884 portrait of ‘Madame X’, the American-born adventuress Virginie Gautreau, shocked Paris with its louche portrayal of the wife of a wealthy French banker, her naked shoulders and décolleté rendered ...”

“... be achieved by insisting on a political threat, ‘even’, in Ben-Zaken’s words, ‘one that may be fictitious’. Abravanel was anticipating one of the most dangerous components of modern Israeli statehood as it would come to be personified by Netanyahu. Israel is always on the brink of disaster, as indeed are all the Jews. It will take catastrophe and ...”

“... himself be cut off by the war when he returned home to make arrangements. And, much as they may have wished to do so, he and Mary did not in 1797 become lovers. Instead of braving the worst together, they parted. There were more long visits to each other’s homes – William (and Dorothy) went to Sockburn, Mary came several times to Dove Cottage ...”

“... not even against the jovial but ineffectual President of the UNLF Government, Binaisa. In mid-May, Obote’s key supporters inside the Front, who included the Army Commander, seized power, put Binaisa under house arrest and announced that the country was being run by a Military Commission chaired by Dr Obote’s friend and old Vice-Chairman, Paulo ...”

“... if we respect her achievements it is futile to condemn her because she was not a nicer person. We may point the finger but we should refrain from wagging it. Florence Nightingale knew many things – Edward Jenner one big thing: that a mild cowpox infection affords protection against smallpox. This observation was the origin of the vaccination procedure which ...”

“... in Peru. The Mexica, as the Spanish called them, and the Inca, however different still they may have been, were not just simple Caribs. At the same time, a new intellectual force appeared in Spain itself: working at the university in Salamanca, inspired by Francisco de Vitoria, a Dominican who had studied under some of Mair’s pupils in Paris, and ...”

“... versifier concludes his prejudicial attack by exclaiming: If such be ‘Artists’, then may Philistines   Arise, plain sturdy Britons as of yore, And sweep them off and purge away the signs   That England e’er such noxious offspring bore!* This is the obverse of Wilde’s threat, after the banning of Salomé, to take out French ...”