My parents were forced to abandon their home. They didn't make a fuss about it, but that is what happened.

I am wary of the word exile, which is overused and romanticised. My parents were forced to abandon their home. They didn't make a fuss about it, but that is what happened. My father was exiled in the sense that it was too dangerous for him ever to go home again, and he never did. It crushed his spirit, to find himself adrift at such a late stage in life. People do not leave home unless they have no choice. They made a life of sorts for themselves in Cairo, but it was never home, not really, just a temporary haven. Home was here, in this town, in that old house that has now been leveled to the ground.

J. Mahjoub, A line in the river (2018), 306

Jewish refugees from Portugal and Spain ... introduced Britain to the street food that would become their national dish - fish fried in flour

We might think the great double act fish and chips is as British as Torvill and Dean, Morecambe and Wise or wind and rain. But in fact it was Jewish refugees from Portugal and Spain, arriving in the seventeenth century, who introduced Britain to the street food that would become their national dish - fish fried in flour. It was French and Belgian Huguenots, coming shortly afterwards, who introduced fried potatoes in the form of frites. What the British did was bring the two together. And what led to the duo becoming a legend was the Industrial Revolution.

V. Franklin and A. Johnson, Menus that made history (2019), 38

Hunting can't be justified ... yet they are all good things

in July 1997 he [Runciman] fell into conversation with James Lees-Milne on the subject of the recently elected New Labour administration: 'We  agreed that  hunting can't be justified, any more than hereditary peers, or for that matter religion - yet they are all good things.'

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 416, footnote

I fear I should never be a success at Oxford ... I should never talk or drink enough

'I fear I should never be a success at Oxford ... I should never talk or drink enough.' However, by the post-war period, Cambridge was beginning to develop a reputation - unfortunate in Steven's view - for narrower professionalism. Trevor-Roper diagnosed the same disease at Oxford, and was determined to lead the alliance that would purge it.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 365

'Can you write the King's English?' ... 'That is almost my only qualification.'

Almost all the history dons had served in at least one of the world wars, whether as soldiers or spies. For some, like Karl Leyser, the senior history tutor at Magdalen, a German-born internee turned naturalized British war hero, soldiering had, perforce, preceded the academic life. Others, like the Christ Church stalwart, Provost of Worcester and ubiquitous fixer J.C. Masterman, had surprised the establishment of military intelligence with the usefulness of their hitherto donnish talents, 'Can you write the King's English?' an SIS superior of Masterman's once demanded. 'That,' J.C. replied mildly, 'is almost my only qualification.'

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 364

He had fewer acquaintances to offend there

It is said that Lawrence Durrell set his Quartet in Alexandria, rather than Athens, only because he had fewer acquaintances to offend there. Nonetheless, from its raffish founder's day on, the city had possessed a certain reputation.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 295

Fault lay with the Czech nation for having the carelessness to lose most of its aristocracy following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620

It could, of course, be argued that that fault lay with the Czech nation for having the carelessness to lose most of its aristocracy following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, and that a British peer [Viscount Doxford], wishing to associate with his social equals, had little choice  but to seek the only suitable company available, which happened to be German

Vrsny, quoted in M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 256

The section on Steven Runciman's father's doomed mission regarding the Sudetenland is depressing. This acerbic summary is I believe unfair, but nonetheless brilliant.

His appointment of James Lees-Milne as his secretary in 1931 much to confirm

Peterson shared the assumption of most of the Foreign Service that Lord Lloyd was homosexual, an assumption that Lloyd's marriage to Blanche Lascalles in 1911 did little to shift and his appointment of James Lees-Milne as his secretary in 1931 much to confirm.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 247

The firmly Liberal Runcimans had entrusted the education of their children to one of the last seventeenth century Tories in Britain

Torby's [Runciman's governess] interests were academic though not dry, her instincts artistic but not fanciful. She treated her adopted Episcopalian religion in a spirit of hereditary romance; her politics, accordingly, were entirely traditional. The firmly Liberal Runcimans had entrusted the education of their children to one of the last seventeenth century Tories in Britain.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 4-5

You wouldn't fear injury. A dimension was lacking.

In the current ashes series [2013], there had been excellent fast-medium bowling, most strikingly from Jimmy Anderson and Ryan Harris, but where were the men who can bowl at 90 mph and over? were was the sheer pace and hostility of those earlier years. Eight or nine fast bowlers played, and against most of them, for almost all the time, you wouldn't fear injury. A dimension was lacking.

M. Brearley, On cricket (2018), 101