“... were ‘literally drowned in blood’, and perhaps the results of the Algerian elections in May bear him out. Despite the fact that it won only 15 per cent of the registered vote, the FLN now has over half the seats in the National Assembly. But as Kepel would be the first to acknowledge, the violence, though less frenzied than it was five years ...”

“... were right to conclude that ‘the question of whether van der Lubbe carried out the deed alone may be answered in the affirmative without further consideration.’ He had climbed in through a window after breaking the glass: fingerprints, unidentifiable because of the rough surface, were found on the window-ledge. Once inside, he ran through the ...”

“... in Moscow, was actually a quasi-dissident who subsequently emigrated to Israel. For all I know, he may privately have liked my article, or perhaps even thought it insufficiently anti-Soviet. In any case, it didn’t matter. The article was signed S. Fitzpatrick, and Golant assumed that Fitzpatrick was a man. But the person whom the British Council had sent to ...”

“... entirely, illuminated. In some cases, this partial memory is of an act that, strictly speaking, may not be classed as a criminal offence, but the shame involved isn’t about illegality – it’s about sin. I used to believe that the notion of sin was a throwback, something carried forward from Sundays and feast days, when my mother took me to Mass and we ...”

“... using the word ‘needy’, but as a criticism. I was about the neediest person in the world. She may not have known about real psychology, but needy is its Mont Blanc. It must have been awful. As I was reading pretty much the same books, Doris thought I should have learned from them how to behave. It never occurred to her that she hadn’t had any hands-on ...”

“... Schwartz, Lowell, Berryman and Jarrell probably didn’t need the encouragement. Be that as it may, it was off to the races. In the summer of 1948 Jarrell reviewed The Dispossessed in the Nation, sneering at ‘the slavishly Yeatsish grandiloquence in the early work which at its best resulted in a sort of posed, planetary melodrama, and which at its worst ...”

“... but oddly indifferent. Now, with a carefree smile on my face that spoke volumes about my devil-may-care personality, I was joking about it all with this smart, confident girl – and that felt good. Of course, under the circumstances – a Zealous Chargehand hovering once more by the stopped fan, a sneaked cigarette break that had gone on for far too long ...”

“... the airspace of the United States of America, where – where do they go? It’s Alaska.’ She may yet regain her poise. Her populist appeal is still enormous, and it’s far too early to start dancing on her grave, as some commentators have already tried to do. Palin’s campaign-trail mistakes will not calm that deep groundswell of public feeling of ...”

“... Flanagan kept it all his life. It read: ‘I do hereby solemnly affirm that any statements I may have made about Thomas Flanagan, or said that he had made, were calumnies and lies on my part. Truman Capote.’ The first letter suggests the mangled and gnarled background which Capote was so hurt by, and also so strangely proud of. The second makes clear ...”

“... arcade games in which you can attack the M25 as a virtual reality circuit. UP TO TWO PLAYERS MAY RACE AT ONCE. INSERT COINS. In fact, this sideshow at Pickett’s Lock represents the Best Value future for the motorway: grass it over and let would-be helldrivers take out their aggression on the machines. This pleasing sense of being removed from the ...”

“... of this misconceived trip was now secure. I have returned to the hotel to write up this diary and may attend some of the conference this afternoon, now that I know I have the means of intellectual escape. WednesdayThe day began with a small but nonetheless piquant disappointment. In the morning, rather than be sucked into any breakfast small talk, I decided ...”

“... remodelled classrooms to suit ‘child-centred’ learning. Whatever misgivings Westminster may have had (the Conservatives were returned to power in 1970 after six years of Labour government, and Margaret Thatcher became education secretary), there was little it could do, since local authorities were responsible for running schools.Since ...”

“... that a novel has a strong textural resemblance to those shaming things we have all had, though we may not admit to having had one since the age of six, namely daydreams.’In her early fifties, she started noticing that her body was behaving differently, ‘alerting my mind to facts it did not know’. Once, hurrying to catch a cab, she fell and temporarily ...”

“... us were in the same frame. He noted my pained expressions.’ This once ‘nightmarish figure’ may have ‘taken on the role of some kindly, distant uncle’, but his letters unsettled her. After she had a miscarriage (unbeknownst to him), he ‘said something that made my skin prickle’: ‘Excuse me if I say so, but I know I can speak openly with ...”

“... waste that is burned for energy has risen from just 9 per cent in 2001 to around half today. This may seem a positive development, especially since incinerators have improved markedly in terms of toxin emissions. However, EfW plants aren’t all that efficient in generating energy and they emit a huge amount of carbon dioxide – in Britain’s case, more CO2 ...”