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“... John Weightman, reviewing Jean-Denis Bredin’s monumental work in the Observer, wrote of the Dreyfus Affair that ‘it was perhaps a good thing for France that the abscess burst when it did, because this brought tensions out into the open and revealed the “undeclared civil war” which would need to be resolved in the 20th century.’ It is, perhaps, a curious notion that there could be any time when it would be ‘a good thing’ for a country to experience a racking political scandal which, over a 12-year period, led to the unparalleled expression of group hatreds, brought about suicides, the ruination of careers and the fall of governments, and which produced anti-semitic riots without number in which Jews were robbed, vilified and killed ...”

“... attempt to characterise sardonic humour, whether it comes from Fran Lebowitz, Andrew Sean Greer or David Sedaris. Nora Ephron worked hard to overcome her ‘Dorothy Parker problem’, but others embrace it. Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, called her production company ...”