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“... For all his ingenuity, however, the Grand Old Man did not use ‘farrago’, a term which Daphne Bennett’s new biography shows to have been singularly apposite. Although Margot wrote no fewer than seven assorted books about herself, she has hitherto lacked a full-scale biographical appraisal. One of the reasons, more daunting to serious ...”

“... is the novelist’s concern. The influence most frequently invoked is not her early idol Bennett but Conrad – although a Conrad with whom Drabble has certain quarrels. (‘There is plenty of confusion in real life, without inventing more of it,’ the heroine of The Gates of Ivory snippishly thinks, as she ploughs through Victory.) The Radiant ...”

“... Midgley still hesitated. ‘I’m not sure if we’ve couched this in strong enough terms, Daphne.’ ‘It’s as you dictated it.’ ‘I have no doubt. But I feel more strongly about it now. Nothing else is there, Midgley?’ Midgley shook his head and went out. ‘A boy slips. Is pushed and we are talking about concussion. A broken neck. A ...”