“... the TV viewing public tuning in and huge street parties. Umberto Eco, in the calcio equivalent of William Cobbett’s ‘I defy you to agitate any fellow with a full stomach,’ had asked in 1978: ‘Is it possible to have a revolution on a football Sunday?’ Sandro Pertini, who had fought in the First World War and as a partisan in the Second, became ...”

“... my fingers were straying. Here were the memoirs of a few dandies of the turn of the century, Frank Harris and Boni de Castellane, and a copy of the commonplace book of the mysterious Comtesse Diane, but it was the books on the left-hand side of the shelf to which destiny was leading me. Slowly I crossed my right hand over my left hand, and, after the first ...”

“... children, were elaborate cakes and the latest iPhone.She was fond of a quote she’d found from William Golding. ‘I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men,’ it said. ‘They are far superior and always have been.’ Most of the women thought this was a bit untrue, but Rania was very much herself. When her brother-in-law Tariq became ...”