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“... instead of swinging from one chandelier to another ... He’s a miserable little coward and the best way of dealing with a bloody fucker like him is to get hold of him personally and give him a good beating which he won’t forget.’ This attack on Lord Beaverbrook, which must have sent a frisson of delighted horror through its listeners, was something of ...”

“... newspaper coverage, have traditionally been conducted for the benefit of the art trade. The best part of Lacey’s book is the portrait of Peter Cecil Wilson, third son of Sir Mathew ‘Scatters’ Wilson, Bart. PCW became a porter in the furniture department at Sotheby’s in 1936, was allowed to catalogue and market an important sale of antique rings ...”

“... now at Alnwick Castle, which Hale rightly sees as reminiscent of French portraiture, is surely best explained by the French ambassador’s enjoining Titian to copy a likeness that had been made previously in France. The failure to give convincing vitality to the bishop’s face is especially noticeable because of the narrative dimension that Titian has ...”

“... detractors claim that all his work is mannered and self-indulgent, and they’re right: but the best of it – a couple of ‘The Nervous Songs’, some of the sonnets, most of The Dream Songs – opens up a saving gap between a displayed self-consciousness and the poet who lurks behind it. Like Lowell, Berryman was raised in the New Critical stable. He ...”

“... as under-written. The sentences which open several of the pieces in Granta’s much trumpeted Best of Young British Novelists are plain to a fault. ‘Andy runs across the ice,’ ‘I had no time for vices,’ ‘Lisa was meeting her father for supper,’ ‘He didn’t like attending County Hall,’ ‘The first person I was in love with was called Mark ...”

“... neither can he bring himself to ignore them altogether. Habits of faith (and habits of writing best-sellers) die hard – and if there is a good story to be told, Taylor may be counted on to tell it, even when he no longer believes it to be true. Thus he begins with ‘spontaneous human combustion’, ends with survival after death, and leaves out precious ...”

“... They were painted for the hospital’s previous building during the First World War (the two best are dated 1915 and 1916), and their hushed atmosphere, tense geometry and subdued colour scheme respond to the grim anxieties of the Home Front, as well as to their original classical setting. The figures wait – for the doctor, for food, for peace. A ...”

“... and educational privilege. The ‘king-size sheet from Liberty’s sale’ which serves as the best table-cloth at Clifton is just a prop on a stage set. Far from wishing to satirise the society which her characters may be thought of as representing, Murdoch scarcely acknowledges its existence. Her attentive gaze is fixed on deeper realities: the ...”

“... and, finally, ‘If you do not like our editorial policies and practices, then it certainly seems best if you cease to contribute.’ (They made up.)Keller put his force of personality to work, consciously fashioning his image as a critic prepared to tell it like it is (‘I am neither tactful nor tactical; on the other hand, I am truthful’; ‘I know when ...”

“... of self-denigration. But the overwhelming tendency of the novel is to ignore Yael’s view (or at best to co-opt it) and instead to snuggle down comfortably with Fima. It’s hard to pinpoint this tendency, but it seems to have something to do with the use of candour as a means of control. The novel sets out to demythologise Fima. On the one hand, by letting ...”

“... that the sort of art history and criticism he likes is ‘conversable’ and ‘sociable’. The best model, it seems to me, is provided by ...”

“... epilogue, where Oz gives us a sketch of the city of Ashdod, his ideal polis:   And what is, at best, is the city of Ashdod.   A pretty city and to my mind a good one, this Ashdod ... And she is not quite the grandiose fulfilment of the vision of the Prophets and of the dream of generations; not quite a world premiere, but simply a city on a human scale ...”

“... from the remains of ancient architecture) strains our credulity. Rowland is not always at her best, or most reliable, when interpreting the visual arts. The first Pope whose patronage she explores in detail is Alexander VI Borgia, whose apartments in the Vatican Palace range below the stanze which Raphael decorated for Julius II and Leo ...”

“... onwards, ‘is to relate a history or fable’ – to compete with the poet or dramatist, and best of all with epic and tragedy. The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Delaroche reminds us that the ‘great business’ was not neglected in the 19th century, although by then there were those who argued that painting what could be seen, whether landscape or ...”

“... than ideas, and that since literature is written by people, about people and for people, it is best treated as human stuff and in a human way. Once upon a time Bayley would not have felt the need to spell out such a commonplace, but as fashions in the university have changed he has been drawn increasingly onto the offensive. The present volume acknowledges ...”