“... surrendered. The formal capitulation of Heligoland to the Royal Navy didn’t take place until 11 May. Then, after the remaining garrison was evacuated, Heligoland became for the first time in millennia an uninhabited rock.Britain had, in effect, regained possession of Heligoland. But, still obsessed with its supposed symbolism, the British were in no mood to ...”

“... estate, Augusta wrote to ‘forgive freely, all and everything that has antagonised and I may say almost destroyed me’ it was the last straw. The breach with Annabella lasted a decade, during which time a mare’s nest of entanglements among Augusta’s daughters and the lecherous Trevanion, unwanted pregnancies and more demands for money culminated ...”

“... the way society has taught them. So ‘the emotion that [Raymon] felt at the sight of Indiana may be compared to that of an actor thoroughly imbued with the spirit of his role, who finds himself in the presence of the principal character of the drama and can no longer distinguish artificial stage effects from reality.’ Even more in thrall to the ...”

“... out of a party.Great reporting isn’t usually harmed by the reporter having a poor character. It may even be improved by it. Lillian just happened to be hard-bitten in the right way. Her pieces relied on a ruthlessness, sometimes a viciousness, that she didn’t try to hide and that other people liked to comment on. She talked a lot about not being ...”

“... responsibility for atrocities. Sentences are decided on the principle of restorative justice and may include house arrest – punishment that many see as too lenient. After all that has happened in Colombia, does getting people up on a stage with podiums and microphone headsets make sense? ‘We know that there are powerful people behind you,’ said the ...”

“... it is quite another thing to learn to build it practically, in such a way every small peasant may take part in the work of reconstruction.’Like Padmore and James, McKay never truly broke with Lenin. And he didn’t let his anti-Stalinism distort his critique of imperialism or support of anti-colonial liberation movements in Trinidad, Ireland, Ethiopia ...”

“... It is not true that the oppressed are always to be feared. The writing of Nabokov or Updike may not be a windowpane, but it is often brilliant. Joyce and Beckett are inimitable. Africa has not returned to bush, though many of its people are badly governed, and exploited by outside interests. Offering someone a second chance is a humane act: Naipaul’s ...”

“... indulges is the fantasy of being restored to the Garden of Eden, to a state of innocence, where he may know love as love and not as the law.’ He distinguishes firmly between Eden as a dream of the past and the New Jerusalem as a project for the future. In Eden, he says, ‘it is absolutely required that one be happy and likeable,’ whereas in New Jerusalem ...”

“... the killing of millions of ‘natives’, and of course slavery. Belgian rule in the Congo may have come to an end in 1960 but that doesn’t mean the effects of Belgian rule have also ended; and Belgian historians have only just begun to take account of what the country did in Africa. There seems to be no end to the aftermath of empire in the lives of ...”

“... are impractical. There are no coats on pegs here. If you can’t drive, you have to write. It may take years, time enough for a dozen train trips from London Bridge, but I’ll be waiting impatiently for Seabrook’s next ...”

“... is protected at this stage, and you can now go ahead and publish if you wish, but eventually you may proceed to a full (or utility) patent, where property rights are wrapped up more securely, and, while IP lawyers make fortunes from litigation about who in fact owns the property, basically the matter is now in the domain of formal law. If the university does ...”

“... But Yates reserves his special scorn for attempts to transcend this environment. Mailer’s terms may have been tough, but at least he offered 1950s man some alternatives: he must be hip or square, ‘with it’ or ‘doomed not to swing’. For Frank, lifestyle protest is not an option. His cellmate at work lives what appears to be an F. Scott Fitzgerald ...”

“... control over the Strip in a different form. It’s possible that with the Gaza plan Israel may, for the first time and with pressure from the international donor community, be able to secure Palestinian endorsement of what it is creating. In this respect, the Disengagement Plan can be seen as yet another in a long line of Israeli attempts to extract ...”

“... picnic dishes and jewellery, and garden ornaments for people’s holiday homes. And then: ‘It may not sound like a cultural revolution, but that is what it turned out to be.’ This occurs on page 85. It will not be till page 394 that the reader will learn what the unlikely revolution really was. Various lesser theses follow in the meantime from these ...”

“... masters. These efforts culminated in the Somerset decision of 1772, a legal circumlocution which may not actually have ended slavery but which persuaded a good many people – planters included – that it had done. During the Revolution itself, the loyal British governor of Virginia, the Earl of Dunmore, offered the slaves of Patriot farmers freedom in ...”