His reputation for bravery was for him tantamount to a reputation for stupidity

Tiekoro had always looked on Tiefolo as a boor who covered himself with gris-gris to track down animals that had never done him any harm; his reputation for bravery was for him tantamount to a reputation for stupidity. But Tiefolo was the eldest son of his father's younger brother, and so he ought to try to get along with him.

M. Condé, Segu (1984), tr. B. Bray (1987), 355

Al-Qaeda, by contrast, never played cricket and favoured volleyball

So cricket is one of the rare things which can bring the Pakistan military and the Taliban together, in what amounts to a temporary ceasefire. For example, it is not unknown for army bulldozers to clear the wickets of debris at the start, and for the Taliban to provide security while tournaments are under way. My informants told me that the Al-Qaeda, by contrast, never played cricket and favoured volleyball. They also liked football - but never cricket.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 411-2

Astonishing teenagers are a recurring theme in Pakistan's cricket history

Astonishing teenagers are a recurring theme in Pakistan's cricket history. Of the 33 players recorded as making their Test debut before the age of eighteen, 15 are Pakistanis.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 386

In the wake of the 1992 World Cup triumph, the historian of Pakistan cricket begins to feel sympathy with Edward Gibbon as he came to terms with the final centuries of the Roman Empire

In the wake of the 1992 World Cup triumph, the historian of Pakistan cricket begins to feel sympathy with Edward Gibbon as he came to terms with the final centuries of the Roman Empire. It becomes necessary to deal with a succession of short-lived rulers, installed, deposed and occasionally reinstalled after regular revolts from the legions. While the army remains full of soldiers of the highest quality, still capable of famous victories, too often it is fatally undermined by indiscipline and corruption.  

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 347

This was simply not cricket, but it did not matter as long as you did not lose

Shuja-ud-Din, who played in this poignant contest, recorded: 'This was simply not cricket, but it did not matter as long as you did not lose.'

...

It was becoming evident that Tests between Pakistan and India had developed a unique sensibility. Those who ere normal became slightly mad. Those who were already troubled were temporarily blinded with a kind of insanity.

P. Oborne, Wounded tiger (2014), 109

A town which does not yet have a road, but where they started building a palace

The city had been ravaged by the war and struck one visitor as a 'disgusting and filthy place'. Two years after Otto's palace had started, a French reporter scoffed: '[New Athens] is a town which does not yet have a road, but where they started building a palace - a sufficiently correct image of a country where they first made a king before they were assured that there was a nation.'

M. Mazower, The Greek Revolution (2021), 443

An instrument of counter-revolution

Near the end of the twentieth century, the so-called right to intervene (later recast as the responsibility to protect) emerged in international diplomacy in connection with humanitarian relief. But it had started out, in the years after 1815, as an instrument of counter-revolution that the representatives of Austria, Russia and Prussia agreed might be needed to preserve the peace.

M. Mazower, The Greek Revolution (2021), 398

When Napoleon's remains were returned to France in 1840, no fewer than fourteen bogus emperors were admitted into care

It is perhaps difficult now to understand the posthumous impact of the French Emperor - what Chateaubriand called the 'despotism of his memory' - or how far and for how long his shadow stretched across Europe. Sightings of him were reported, supposedly accompanied by an astonishing array of troops, across much of Europe for years after. A recent history of French psychiatric institutions reveals that when Napoleon's remains were returned to France in 1840, no fewer than fourteen bogus emperors were admitted into care; there had been others before that and would be more in the following decade.  

M. Mazower, The Greek Revolution (2021), 222-3

The Sultan could count on bringing much larger and better-armed forces into the field

The Greeks were a minority of the population of the Ottoman Empire, comprising perhaps 3 million out of its 23 or 24 million people; only in a few areas - the Morea, the islands of the Aegean and some places north of the Gulf of Corinth - did they predominate. Yet even these figures ail to give a full sense of the imbalance, for whereas the Greeks had no cavalry and found it hard to raise and arm even 15,000-20,000 fighters, the Sultan could count on bringing much larger and better-armed forces into the field.

M. Mazower, The Greek Revolution (2021), 182

Its two main outside threats, the Turks and the French

Emperor Leopold I was seen mostly as a clumsy but reasonable and mild figure, the antithesis of a war hero, who nevertheless stood between the Empire and its two main outside threats, the Turks and the French. This reputation deviated from the heroic imagery of court spectacle, but was probably nearer to the mark.

J. Duindam, Dynasties: a global history of power (2016), 276-7

Bigger than the combined staffs of the six ministries running the French state

The household serving Louis XIV’s brother, approximately half the size of the king’s own household, was bigger than the combined staffs of the six ministries running the French state at the central level.

Duindam, Dynasties: a global history of power (2016), 224

One obedient slave is better than three hundred sons

One obedient slave is better than three hundred sons; for the latter desire their father’s death, the former his master’s glory.

In Nizam al-Mulk, The Book of Government, ed. H. Drake (1960), XXVII.117.  Cited in J. Duindam, Dynasties: a global history of power (2016), 87)

We are interested only in people who steal because their bellies are full

The master of ceremonies leaped on to the platform and called for silence. He addressed the audience and told them this was a competition for thieves and robbers, real ones - that is, those who had reached international standards. Stories of people braking padlocks in village huts or snatching purses from poor market women were shameful in the eyes of real experts in theft and robbery, and more so when such stories were narrated in front of international thieves and robbers. The foreigners had not travelled all this way to meet people who stole just because they were hungry or needed clothes and jobs. Such petty thieves and robbers were criminals. "Here, in this cave, we are interested only in people who steal because their bellies are full," the master of ceremonies said, patting his stomach.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Devil on the cross (1980. English version 1982), 103

They trot with vigor with two months, then they disintegrate and leave the Model T Ford right in the middle of the road.

I tell you honestly, there is no modern car that can match the Model T Ford construction-wise. Don't simply contrast the gleam of the bodywork. Beauty is not food. The metal from which modern cars are made - models like Peugeots, Toyotas, Canters, even Volvos and Mercedes Benzes - fall to pieces as easily as paper soaked in rain. But not the Model T Ford, oh no! Its metal is the kind that is said to be able to drill holes in other cars. I'd rather keep this old model. A stone hardened by age is never washed away by the rains. A borrowed necklace may cause one to lose one's own. The new models come from Japan, Germany, France, America. They trot with vigor with two months, then they disintegrate and leave the Model T Ford right in the middle of the road.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Devil on the cross (1980. English version 1982), 29-30

I liked Western novels better because of the bitches in them

When I was left home alone, I would put on my mother’s dress and heels and sit on the couch reading Anna Karenina. Society balls, servants, aiguillettes...romantic trysts...I liked everything up to the part when Anna throws herself under the train: What did she do that for? She was beautiful and rich...for love? Not even Tolstoy could convince me...I liked Western novels better because of the bitches in them, the beautiful bitches that men would shoot themselves over and suffer for. Fall at their feet. The last time I cried over unrequited love was when I was seventeen—I spent the whole night in the bathroom with the tap running. My mother consoled me with poems by Pasternak

S. Alexievich, tr. B. Shayevich, Second-hand time (2013), 499

There were no cats in the colony, they couldn’t survive in there because there were no leftovers for them to eat, we would pick up every last crumb

I remember the aroma of a slice of melon that my mother had brought me. It was the size of a button, wrapped in a rag. And how one time, the boys called me over to play with a cat, but I didn’t know what a cat was. The cat had come from the outside, there were no cats in the colony, they couldn’t survive in there because there were no leftovers for them to eat, we would pick up every last crumb. We were always looking under our feet for something to eat. We ate grasses, roots, licked pebbles. We really wanted to give the cat some sort of treat, but we didn’t have anything, so we’d feed it our spit after dinner—and it would eat it! It would!

S. Alexievich, tr. B. Shayevich, Second-hand time (2013), 379

You can’t judge us according to logic. You accountants! You have to understand! You can only judge us according to the laws of religion

You can’t judge us according to logic. You accountants! You have to understand! You can only judge us according to the laws of religion. Faith! Our faith will make you jealous! What greatness do you have in your life? You have nothing. Just comfort. Anything for a full belly...Those stomachs of yours...Stuff your face and fill your house with tchotchkes. But I...my generation...We built everything you have. The factories, the dams, the electric power stations. What have you ever built? And we were the ones who defeated Hitler.

S. Alexievich, tr. B. Shayevich, Second-hand time (2013), 279-80

I would rather live in a weak country where there’s yogurt and good beer

Today it’s the market. So all right, we’ll eat our fill, and then what? When I go into my grandchildren’s room, everything in there is foreign: the shirts, the jeans, the books, the music — even their toothbrushes are imported. Their shelves are lined with empty cans of Coke and Pepsi. Savages! They go to the supermarkets like they’re museums. They think it’s cool, celebrating their birthday at McDonald’s! “Grandpa, we went to Pizza Hut!” Mecca! They ask me, “Did you really believe in communism? How about aliens?” I dreamt of war on the palaces, peace to the cottages—they want to become millionaires. Their friends come over and I overhear them saying things like: “I would rather live in a weak country where there’s yogurt and good beer.”

S. Alexievich, tr. B. Shayevich, Second-hand time (2013), 268

Two coats are enough to last a lifetime, but you can’t live without Pushkin or the complete works of Gorky

My mother wasn’t alone, all of her friends were like this, too—the first generation of Soviet intelligentsia who had grown up on Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov...on Marxism...Could you imagine my mother sitting down and embroidering something or going out of her way to decorate our house with porcelain vases or little elephant figurines...Never! That would be a pointless waste of time. Petit bourgeois nonsense! The most important thing is spiritual labor...Books...You can wear the same suit for twenty years, two coats are enough to last a lifetime, but you can’t live without Pushkin or the complete works of Gorky.

S. Alexievich, tr. B. Shayevich, Second-hand time (2013), 224

Russians don’t understand freedom, they need the Cossack and the whip

I asked everyone I met what “freedom” meant. Fathers and children had very different answers. Those who were born in the USSR and those born after its collapse do not share a common experience—it’s like they’re from different planets.

For the fathers, freedom is the absence of fear; the three days in August when we defeated the putsch. A man with his choice of a hundred kinds of salami is freer than one who only has ten to choose from. Freedom is never being flogged, although no generation of Russians has yet avoided a flogging. Russians don’t understand freedom, they need the Cossack and the whip.

S. Alexievich, tr. B. Shayevich, Second-hand time (2013), 30-31

Constantinople is where the pagan world ended, and where Dionysus met his untimely demise

There would be no global Christianity without this city, which later, under the Ottomans, came to be known as The Abode of Happiness. Constantinople is where the pagan world ended, and where Dionysus met his untimely demise. Its stony melancholy is imperial, austere and attuned to the One God, whether that of Justinian or of Mehmet the Conqueror. 'Gong-tormented' and vaporous, as Patrick Leigh Fermor famously described it in Mani, that exquisite meditation on, among many other things, the long drawn-out and misunderstood genius of Byzantium.

L. Osborne, The wet and the dry (2013), 196

A good ice cream lulls in the mind in the same way, almost, and there is about it the sweet intoxication of virtue

The Islamic warriors did not see anything to enrage them. The bar did not exist. The women were not 'exposed'. There was just the mall itself, where I sat down at last to eat an ice cream under the smiles of the headscarfed girls who served them. Ice cream. Isn't ice cream always the substitution for a nice beer, from 'dry' Islamabad to 'dry' Ocean City, New Jersey?  A good ice cream lulls in the mind in the same way, almost, and there is about it the sweet intoxication of virtue.

L. Osborne, The wet and the dry (2013), 173-4

Shi'ites always cut a deal. It was the Sunni fanatics who were the darkest version of the future

I went to Chateau Massaya and had lunch with the winemaker Ramzi Ghosn. He insisted that Hezbollah were not a problem. Their people made substantial earnings as vineyards workers and in the light of this reality the clerics would turn a blind eye. Shi'ites always cut a deal. It was the Sunni fanatics who were the darkest version of the future.

'The boys with the beards up in the hills, they are the ones who make me sleepless at night. They are the madmen. The Shi'a are something else.'

'Not true fanatics?' 

'Not about these things.'

L. Osborne, The wet and the dry (2013), 33 

Of the estimated 30 billion food miles associated with UK consumed food, 82 per cent are generated within the country

Of the estimated 30 billion food miles associated with UK consumed food, 82 per cent are generated within the country, and over half of those in 2005 were simply due to trips by car from homes to local food shops. 

… 

Buying a locally reared Welsh lamb in the UK is worse for the environment than buying a frozen one. Indeed, lamb which is imported 11,000 miles from New Zealand is, somewhat surprisingly, better for the environment and has a lower carbon footprint. The impact of food transport can be offset, to some extent, if food production is more sustainable than local production methods.

T. Spector, Spoon fed (2020), 209-10

 

In France, raising your children as vegan is classed as criminal neglect

Studies have shown that children raised on a vegan diet are often smaller and have low levels of certain nutrients such as riboflavin and B12, which, when extreme has led to high-profile deaths. In France, raising your children as vegan is classed as criminal neglect.

T. Spector, Spoon fed (2020), 126-7

Anyone worthy of admission to the university would already be fluent in French

But ever since the decline of Latin, French had been the language of cultivated cosmopolitan elites – and thus the European language par excellence. When, in the early years of the twentieth century, it was first proposed to introduce the teaching of French as part of the modern languages syllabus at Oxford University, more than one don opposed the idea on the plausible grounds that anyone worthy of admission to the university would already be fluent in French.

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 760

Salazar, an economist who had for some years lectured at the University of Coimbra, was not only unperturbed at Portugal’s backwardness, but saw it instead as the key to stability – upon being informed that oil had been discovered in Portugal’s Angolan territories he commented merely that this was ‘a pity’ 

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 511

The engine room of European culture for the first third of the twentieth century ... had ceased to exist

The intellectual condition of post-war Western Europe would have been unrecognizable to a visitor from even the quite recent past. German-speaking central Europe – the engine room of European culture for the first third of the twentieth century – had ceased to exist. Vienna, already a shadow of its former self after the overthrow of the Habsburgs in 1918, was divided like Berlin among the four allied power. It could hardly feed or clothe its citizens, much less contribute to the intellectual life of the continent

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 203

Bulgaria always chooses the wrong card … and slams it on the table!

The Bulgarians has actually oscillated quite markedly over the years from enthusiastic pro-Germanism to ultra-Slavophilism. Neither served them well. As a local commentator remarked at the time, Bulgaria always chooses the wrong card … and slams it on the table!

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 134 footnote

France ceased to be not just a Great Power but even a power

In six traumatic weeks, the cardinal reference points of European inter-state relations changed forever. France ceased to be not just a Great Power but even a power, and despite De Gaulle’s best efforts in later decades it has never been one since. For the shattering defeat of June 1940 was followed by four years of humiliating, demeaning, subservient occupation, with Marshall Petain’s Vichy regime playing Uriah Heep to Germany’s Bill Sikes.

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 113

Boundaries stayed in broadly intact and people were moved instead

At the conclusion of the First world War, it was borders that were invented and adjusted, while people were on the whole left in place. After 1945 what happened was the opposite: with one major exception boundaries stayed in broadly intact and people were moved instead.

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 27

Supposing there are some other people somewhere, people we don’t know?

Once she had said to him, ‘Supposing there are some other people somewhere, people we don’t know?’
He had looked at her seriously.
‘What sort of people?’
‘Perfectly charming people. Really delightful, intelligent, amusing, civilized…And we don’t know them, and nobody we know knows them. And they don’t know us and they don’t know anybody we know.’
Bob had thought for a moment and then he had said, ‘It’s impossible. But if it were not impossible, then I don’t think I should want to know such people. I don’t think I should find anything in common with them.’ 

I. Colegate, The shooting party (1980), 120

He believed - of course he believed - that Renaissance man had been best embodied in the eighteenth-century English gentleman

He believed - of course he believed - that Renaissance man had been best embodied in the eighteenth-century English gentleman, and it was this figure, standing in his library, a book in one hand, the other resting on a piece of classical sculpture, gazing out over a landscape harmoniously ordered by himself and under his guidance his tenants, in the consciousness that from time to time he would be called upon to play a part in the government of his country or its defence, and that in due course his eldest son would take his place and stand at his library window and deal with his tenants and show his visitors the improvements  - it was this figure in Sur Randolph's mind accorded so ill with striking industrial workers, screaming suffragettes, Irish terrorists, scandals on the Stock Exchange, universal suffrage.  

I. Colegate, The shooting party (1980), 108-9

But for the nation itself there would only be a change of embezzlers and a change of the hunters and the hunted

There would be nothing different in that. That would only be a continuation of the Ghanaian way of life. But here was the real change. The individual man of power now shivering, his head filled with the fear of the vengeance of those he had wronged. For him everything was going to change. And for those like him who had grown greasy and fat singing the praises of their chief, for those who had been getting them- selves ready for the enjoyment of hoped-for favors, there would be long days of pain ahead. The flatterers with their new white Mercedes cars would have to fand ways of burying old words. For those who had come directly against the old power, there would be much happiness. But for the nation itself there would only be a change of embezzlers and a change of the hunters and the hunted. A pitiful shrinking of the world from those days Teacher still looked back to, when the single mind was filled with the hopes of a whole people. A pitiful shrinking, to days when all the powerful could think of was to use the power of a whole people to fill their own paunches. Endless days, same days, stretching into the future with no end anywhere in sight.

A. Kwei Armah, The beautyful ones are not yet born (1968), 162

I’m afraid I was always constitutionally incapable of bringing myself to the required pitch of enthusiasm

'Were you ever a communist, Bernhard?' I asked. 

At once — I saw it in his face — he was on the defensive. After a moment, he said slowly: 

'No, Christopher. I’m afraid I was always constitutionally incapable of bringing myself to the required pitch of enthusiasm.' 

I felt suddenly impatient with him; angry, even: 'ever to believe in anything?'

Bernhard smiled faintly at my violence. It may have amused him to have roused me like this.

'Perhaps. . .' Then he added, as if to himself: 'No that is not quite true. . . '

'What do you believe in, then?' I challenged. 

Bernhard was silent for some moments, considering this — his beaky delicate profile impassive, his eyes half -closed. At last he said: 'Possibly I believe in discipline.' 

'In discipline?'

'You don't understand that, Christopher? Let me try to explain ... I believe in discipline for myself, not necessarily for others. For others, I cannot judge. I know only that I myself must have certain standards which I obey and without which I am quite lost. . . . Does that sound very dreadful?'

C. Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin (1939), 198-9

It is a very solemn undertaking to adore a millionaire

'I adore him,' Sally told me, repeatedly and very solemnly, whenever we were alone together. She was intensely earnest in believing this. It was like a dogma in a newly adopted religious creed; Sally adores Clive. It is a very solemn undertaking to adore a millionaire. Sally's features began to assume, with increasing frequency, the rapt expression of the theatrical nun. And indeed, when Clive, with his charming vague- ness, gave a particularly flagrant professional beggar a 47 twenty-mark note, we would exchange- glances of genuine awe. The waste of so much good money affected us both like something inspired, a kind of miracle.

C. Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin (1939), 64

For country music, the coming of Elvis was a disaster

For country music, the coming of Elvis was a disaster. As the standard soundtrack for many Southern homes, country music bound generations together. That began to end with the coming of rock ‘n’ roll. At first, the music industry regarded artists such as Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Everly Brothers as country acts who happened to have special appeal for the kids. But as these artists increasingly dominated the Top 10 country charts, pushing out adult artists, country record promoters began to demand that the trade magazines get the young rock ‘n’ rollers off the country charts before they destroyed the essence of country music. By the end of the 1961, Elvis and the Everly Brothers were gone from the country charts.

M. Kosser, How Nashville became Music City USA (2006), 37

Choosing has become more of a problem than finding

It's easy to forget that there was once a time when books went out of print, films disappeared from cinemas & records got deleted. Stuff got forgotten. We're so used to everything being available all the time, any time, today. Choosing has become more of a problem than finding. But back in the early '80s this book was the only way for me to experience La Dolce Vita. I obviously wasn't getting the full picture - but it was better than nothing. I had made contact with another great work of art.

J. Cocker, Good pop, bad pop (2022), 265

At the age of five I understood that it was bad for us that mama was young and beautiful. It was dangerous.

I knew my mama was young and beautiful. Other children's mamas were older, but at the age of five I understood that it was bad for us that mama was young and beautiful. It was dangerous. I figured it out at the age of five ... I even understood that it was good that I was little. How could a child understand that? Nobody explained anything to me ...

S. Alexievich, tr. R. Pevear and L. Volkhonsky, Last Witnesses [Liuda Andreeva] (1985), 182

During the war I hadn't seen a single child's thing. I forgot they existed.

In the ruins of q German village I saw a child's bicycle lying about. I was happy. I got on it and rode. It rode so well! During the war I hadn't seen a single child's thing. I forgot they existed. Children's toys ...

S. Alexievich, tr. R. Pevear and L. Volkhonsky, Last Witnesses [Volodia Chistokletov] (1985), 42

Good, we thought later, it's lucky they were so skinny, we didn't have to eat them

We had a horse, Maika ... she was old and very gentle, and we used her to carry water. The next day this Maika was killed. We were given water with a small piece of Maika in it ... But they concealed it from us for a long time. We wouldn't have been able to eat her ... Not for anything! She was the only horse in our orphanage. We also had two hungry cats. Skeletons! Good, we thought later, it's lucky they were so skinny, we didn't have to eat them. There was nothing there to eat.

S. Alexievich, tr. R. Pevear and L. Volkhonsky, Last Witnesses [Zina Kosiak] (1985), 15

It was the efforts of the humanitarian and progress-orientated liberals that struck a significant blow at Mexico's indigenous people

Arguably, only in the wake of the War of Independence (1810-1821) did indigenous identity truly suffer. In one of the greatest ironies of history, it was the efforts of the humanitarian and progress-orientated liberals that struck a significant blow at Mexico's indigenous peoples. With all people suddenly equal in the eyes of the law, it seemed counterproductive  to persist in encouraging indigenous peoples to speak in their own language. No longer could a native person go to court and find a translator: that person would need to speak Spanish.

C. Townsend, Fifth Sun (2019), 207

It will never be forgotten, it will always be preserved

It will never be forgotten, it will always be preserved. We will preserve it, we who are the younger brothers, the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, we who are the [family extensions] - the hair, eyebrows, nails - the colour and the blood, we who are the descendants ... we who have been born and lived where lived and governed all the precious ancient Chichimeca kings.

The Nahau historian Chimalpahin, quoted in C. Townsend, Fifth Sun (2019), 197

What the Indians were thinking when they first had Christian doctrines to them has long been a matter of great interest

What the Indians were thinking when they first had Christian doctrines to them has long been a matter of great interest. Generally, Europeans have made their own assumptions without much evidence. At first friars enthusiastically reported that the indigenous were deeply moved and that they, the friars, had been able to baptize many thousands right away. Later, they walked back their assertions that all the Indians had been devout converts from the moment they were sprinkled with holy water, but the friars also remained generally confident in their overall success. They convinced the whole world that they had successfully converted Mexico to Catholicism in relatively short order. Only in the 1990s did it become commonplace for scholars to argue that this premise was indeed false - that in fact the indigenous had not simply rejected generations of belief and accepted Christian teachings without question.

C. Townsend, Fifth Sun (2019), 135

White West Indians have produced more first-class players per thousand of their population than any other community anywhere

Racial generalizations - about certain people being good at ball games - won't help. There has been no West African cricketer; the only Chinese cricketers of standing have come from Trinidad; and, though the fact is seldom noticed, white West Indians have produced more first-class players per thousand of their population than any other community anywhere. Consider now the history of the islands: slavery until 1834, indentured labour until 1917. And then consider the cricket code: gentlemanliness, fair play, teamwork. The very words are tired and, in the West Indian situation, ridiculous, irrelevant. But they filled a need. In islands that had known only brutality and proclaimed greed, cricket and its code provided an area of rest, a release for much that was denied by the society: skill, courage, style: the graces, the very things that a changed world are making the game archaic.   

V.S. Naipaul, 'The Caribbean flavour' (1963), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 433-4

This game could be laid up in heaven, a Platonic idea of cricket in perfection.

If some good fairy were to ask me to pick out one match of all I have seen, to relive it as I lived it as the time when it happened, my choice would be easy: England v. Australia at Lord's in June 1930. I was at the prime of forty years then, fulfilled in work and happy in home, love and health, the mind still unstaled, yet critical enough. This game could be laid up in heaven, a Platonic idea of cricket in perfection. It was limited to four days and finished at five o'clock on the closing afternoon; 1,601 runs were scored and 29 wickets fell. Bradman batted in a Test match at Lord's for the first time, scoring 254 in his first innings. England batted first and made 425, but lost by 7 wickets. Glorious sunshine blessed every moment's play. London was at its most handsome; 1914 forgotten and 1939 not yet casting a shadow for all to see. I can still catch the warmth and the animation of the scene, feel the mind's and the senses' satisfaction. I can see Grimmett bowling, his arm as low as my grandfather's, his artfulness as acute, and I can still see Chapman as he played one of the most gallant and dazzling and precarious innings which has ever cocked a snook at an Australian team ready and impatient to put to rout and ruin an England team apparently in the last ditch, the ghost about to be given up.

N. Cardus, 'The ideal cricket match' (1956), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 317-8

If he ever went after the role of an emperor, the price of the second favourite a the audition would be 33-1 and drifting

His [Viv Richards] demeanour at such moments has been described as insouciant, but regal might be nearer the mark. The downward curve of the fine nose, the level gaze, the wide expressive mouth within the handsome beard - all combine to indicate that if he ever went after the role of an emperor, the price of the second favourite a the audition would be 33-1 and drifting.

H. McIlvanney, 'Black is beautiful' (1985), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 202

Miller is as an Olympian god among mortals

To young eyes, quickest to perceive the things that make cricket, Miller is as an Olympian god among mortals. He brings boys' dreams to life He is the cricketer they would all like to be, the one who can hit more gloriously and bowl faster than anybody on earth. When Neville Cardus called him a young eagle among crows and daws Miller was not a champion playing out of his class; sharing the field were him were the elect of the world's two greatest cricketing countries, Bradman, Hammond and bearers of other famous names, Compton and other men of personality

Masculine as Tarzan, he plays lustily. Style suffuses his cricket with glowing power, personality charges it with daring and knocks bowling and convention sky-high. 

R. Robinson, 'Touch of a Hero' (1951), R. Guha (ed.), The Picador book of cricket (2001), 126

Dick Turner had long since coined the word 'teetotal' and the exponents of that ghastly creed were preaching misery throughout the land

Another factor which contributed to the falling demand [for sherry] was the changing moral attitude towards drink. By the 1880s Victorian smugness and philistinism were reaching their peak; the Salvation Army had been beating its drums for years and saving souls from the torments of alcohol; Dick Turner had long since coined the word 'teetotal' and the exponents of that ghastly creed were preaching misery throughout the land; pious faces could be seen every Sunday leaving tin tabernacles to threaten publicans with eternal damnation. There were, of course, a few of the enlightened, but Saintsbury's influence lay still in the future and G.K. Chesterton was far too young to compose the rimes of The Flying Inn. The naughty nineties were hardly in sight, and when they did come they bright young things only thought of champagne.

J. Jeffs, Sherry (6th edition, 2016), 74

During the regicide disgrace of the Protectorate, sherry suffered a short-lived eclipse

During the regicide disgrace of the Protectorate, sherry suffered a short-lived eclipse but this arose more as a result of matters in Spain than from the change of government in England. During the Civil War and afterwards the nobility, who had been the greatest buyers of wine, could no longer buy it on their accustomed scale. Some were exiled and others impoverished. Although the Puritans detested drunkenness and gluttony, they had no objections to drinking in moderation. The awful heresy of teetotalism was not to emerge for another three hundred years. ... But the beginnings of the Commonwealth coincided with the start of years of terrible plague in Jerez which resulted in the disruption of the wine trade for over two decades.

J. Jeffs, Sherry (6th edition, 2016), 24

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, who discovered Florida, was the son of a Jerez wine grower

All his [Columbus'] efforts, his intrigues with the Church and the monarchy, his triumphs and disappointments, the elaborate preparations for his voyages, the voyages themselves, all were centred on Andalusia. From Andalusia he gathered his forces, and many of the men came from the Sherry towns. He set forth from Sanlúcar de Barrameda on his third journey, to discover the island of Trinidad in 1498, and Sanlúcar was soon established as a major port for the new American trade; it was the port from which Pizzaro set sail twenty-five years later on his way to conquer Peru. Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, who discovered Florida, was the son of a Jerez wine grower.

J. Jeffs, Sherry (6th edition, 2016), 12

Most English people didn't 'give a blow about art' and considered it sissy.

In the book Lord Clark, as he became, described his life (1903-1983) as 'one long, harmless confidence trick', a reference to what he called his freak aptitude, apparent from the age of 9 or 10, for responding authoritatively to works of art.

He profited from this, he told me, because most English people didn't 'give a blow about art' and considered it sissy. So when they met someone who could speak with confidence and enthusiasm about paintings and sculpture, they were prepared to listen - 'to save themselves trouble'.

M. Barber, 'Not your typical courtier', Slightly Foxed 77 (2023), 81

Alexander the Great needed four months to capture Multan in 325 BCE ... It took Ben Stokes three and a half days

Alexander the Great needed four months to capture Multan in 325 BCE, and was hit by an arrow that nearly killed him. It took Ben Stokes three and a half days, despite a touch of flu. By presiding over victory in perhaps the region's most ancient city, he achieved what no cricketing general from English shores ever had - a second successive Test win in Pakistan, and the chance of a whitewash. 

D. Wilson, 'Pakistan v England: second test', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2023), 411

Mostly, though, I think it's because Ukraine is always interested in ideas that help it to identify with cultures that aren't Russian

Cricket's popularity spread to schools across the country until, by the end of the 2010s, it was a staple of many PE classes. Why does Hardeep think it struck such a chord? "In part, it's because cricket is a sport that can be played by boys and girls together up to a certain age. In part it's because you can play it on a football pitch. Mostly, though, I think it's because Ukraine is always interested in ideas that help it to identify with cultures that aren't Russian. Cricket helps connect Ukraine to India, Pakistan, Australia, England..."

A. Preston, 'Anything but Russia', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2023), 49

Good typography is the glass lamp that shields the candle of civilization

But why should any of this matter? Is it not merely what my friends are pleased to call 'font fetishism'? Does all this talk of kerning and the Golden Section not reek of pretension? I don't think so. For although typography considers written words as aesthetic entities in their own right, it does not forget that they are first and foremost the servants of sense. The ultimate purpose of typography is to make reading as pleasant as might be, sparing the reader discomfort and distraction, and thereby freeing that reader's energy and intellect to attend to what the words mean. Good typography is the glass lamp that shields the candle of civilization, that its light may shine through steady and clear.

M. Fisher, 'Philosophical designs', Slightly Foxed 75 (2022), 62

Her father, who by his neutrality had therefore chosen the side of the colonists

You knew what you loved and what you hated and what you did, what actions, what side you had chosen. You could not, for instance, work with the colonists in supressing the people and still say you loved the people. You could not stand on the fence in a struggle and say you were on the side of those fighting the evil. Her father had wanted to make money and to accumulate property: he had chosen neutrality, and he had hated any suggestion of being involved on the side of the people in case this ruined his chances of making money. The tragedy of her father, who by his neutrality had therefore chosen the side of the colonists, was that despite his selling out, despite his denial of self and of his father, he had ended up ruined anyway, the world disintegrating around him. 

N. wa Thiong'o, Petals of blood (1977), 399

Taken to keep the white man's shambas alive while theirs fell into neglect and waste!

Some were taken to work on European farms while the white man went to war. Imagine that: taken to keep the white man's shambas alive while theirs fell into neglect and waste! For a woman alone can never do all the work on the farm. How could she grow sugar cane, yams, sweet potatoes which used to be man's domain.

N. wa Thiong'o, Petals of blood (1977), 254

Colonialism was a brutal unification, brought about by fire and sword! Ten thousand entities were reduced to fifty.

 During precolonial times, and hence not so long ago, more than ten thousand little states, kingdoms, ethnic unions, and federations existed in Africa. Roland Oliver, a historian at the University of London, draws attention to a general paradox in his book, The African Experience (1991): it has become common parlance to say that European colonialists partitioned Africa. Partitioned? Oliver marvels. Colonialism was a brutal unification, brought about by fire and sword! Ten thousand entities were reduced to fifty. 

R. Kapuściński, tr. K. Glowczewska, The shadow of the sun (1998), 323

His local butcher had promised him a lamb chop for every run he scored up to 50, and a steak per run after that

At Lord's, England pulled two surprises. The first was Denness's resignation as captain and replacement by Greig. The second was the call-up of Northamptonshire's David Steele, hoping for a dose of nominative determinism. Grey-haired, bespectacled and 33 years old, Steele looked an unlikely saviour. His local butcher had promised him a lamb chop for every run he scored up to 50, and a steak per run after that. The tabloid press likened him to a bank manager; Lillee nicknamed him "Groucho". 

K. Harris, The Queen at the cricket (2022), 80

All her previous visits to Tests at headquarters, as sovereign, had been on the fourth day

MCC, exasperated after the Queen had missed play in all three Lord's Tests she was scheduled to attend since the previous Ashes, arranged for her to visit on the first day [22 June 1961]. All her previous visits to Tests at headquarters, as sovereign, had been on the fourth day: the Monday after the rest day. She returned to this pattern the following year.

K. Harris, The Queen at the cricket (2022), 40

No young women, no matter how clever, could break her way out of a dress like that

Every day she wore a dress of black-and-red-checked imitation wool, so big it was baggy on her, and a pair of homemade, grey cloth shoes,. She had a lot of siblings, so she wouldn't get any pretty clothes until she had a likely match - but since she didn't have anything pretty to wear, she couldn't get a match. she was trapped in a vicious circle, doomed to spend her blooming years in wishful longing: no young women, no matter how clever, could break her way out of a dress like that.

E. Chang, 'In the waiting room' tr. K.S. Kingsbury, Lust, Caution and other stories (1979), 43

A slowly decaying piece of meatish fallibility in clothes

The body is, in its essentials, a very, very slow one-man horror show: a slowly decaying piece of meatish fallibility in clothes, over the sensations of which we have very little control. Donne looked at it, saw it, and did not blink. He walked straight at it: no explanation, justification, so cheerful sallies. There was just the clear-eyed acknowledgement of the precise anatomy and scale, the look and feel, the reality of ruin.

K. Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022), 69

There were more books in Oxford, more people his own age, less dying

All students over sixteen were required to take an oath acknowledging royal supremacy over all questions of religion: but it was thought that a child under sixteen couldn’t be expected to understand the nature of the oath, and therefore the young brothers could live under the radar in Hart Hall, a place with a reputation for nurturing and protecting Catholics. There was less burning in the streets of Oxford than in London (at least since Archbishop Cranmer, condemned by Mary for refusing toe acknowledge papal supremacy, had med a fiery death in 1556). There were more books in Oxford, more people his own age, less dying.


K. Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022), 32-33

Everything from this period was bad for the reputation of Belgium! So they showed nothing.

There was a rule in the Foreign Ministry archives. They were not permitted to show researchers material that was bad for the reputation of Belgium. But everything from this period was bad for the reputation of Belgium! So they showed nothing. 

Jules Marchal, cited in A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (1998, 2006 edition), 297-8

The effect on anyone who read those stories could be only that of overwhelming horror

And so the statements [on the atrocities in the Congo] continue, story after story, by the hundreds. Here at last was something the rest of the world had seldom heard from the Congo: the voices of the Congolese themselves. On few other occasions in the entire European Scramble for Africa did anyone gather such a searing collection of firsthand African testimony. The effect on anyone who read those stories could be only that of overwhelming horror.

However, no one read them.

Despite the report's conclusions, the statements by African witnesses were never directly quoted. The commission's report was expressed in generalities. The stories were not published separately, not was anyone allowed to see them. They ended up in the closed section of a state archive in Brussels. Not till the 1980s were people at last allowed to see them.

A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (1998, 2006 edition), 255

An Italian who considers his charm and good looks will enable him to get away with anything

Bismarck, no fool, scribbled a comment in the margin beside this passage: "Swindle." Beside a passage about a confederation of free states, he put "Fantasies." When Leopold wrote that the precise frontiers of the new state or states would be defined later, Bismarck said to an aide: "His Majesty displays the pretentions and naïve selfishness of an Italian who considers his charm and good looks will enable him to get away with anything." 

A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (1998, 2006 edition), 83

Righteous denunciations poured down on a distant, weak, and safely nonwhite target

Significantly, British and French antislavery fervor in the 1860s was directed not at Spain and Portugal, which allowed slavery in their colonies, or at Brazil, with its millions of slaves. Instead, righteous denunciations poured down on a distant, weak, and safely nonwhite target: the so-called Arab slave-traders raiding Africa from the east. In the slave markets of Zanzibar, traders sold their human booty to Arab plantation owners on the island itself, and to other buyers in Persia, Madagascar, and the various sultanates and principalities of the Arabian peninsula. For Europeans, here was an ideal target for disapproval: one "uncivilised" race enslaving another.

A. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (1998, 2006 edition), 28

I had witnessed the last parade in my lifetime in which German soldiers would goose step

Goose-stepping, grey-uniformed infantry, the unhappy heirs to the Prussian martial tradition, seemed keen to demonstrate their superiority over any other European infantry. I retreated to a café after half an hour to write in my diary: 'When the Wall comes down, as it must, the thoughts of all this Prussian military tradition married to West German economic power is extremely disturbing' (7 October 1989). Happily, I was wrong: after reunification the quietude of the West German military quickly infected the former East German military; I had witnessed the last parade in my lifetime in which German soldiers would goose step.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 143

It is hard to recall today how robust and energetic London was in the 1980s in standing up for the rights of Central European intellectuals

It is hard to recall today how robust and energetic London was in the 1980s in standing up for the rights of Central European intellectuals who were largely ignored by the other European states. The West Germans did not want to rock the boat of their relations with the East Germans. The French were reluctant to speak out in case it damaged their 'special relationship' with Moscow. The Italians and Spanish preferred to focus on commercial interests. In Europe, only London resolutely and consistently defended the human rights of the subject populations of the Soviet Empire.   

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 112-13

A sense of the absurd married to an inflexible observation of the rules of etiquette

She [Countess Bianca Maria Colomba Korvin] came to personify for me more and more all the qualities of the Habsburg world: perseverance, courage, detachment, and, perhaps above all, a sense of the absurd married to an inflexible observation of the rules of etiquette. However much we laughed together and became friends, the formal Sie was never once surrendered to the informal Du.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 14-15

This once great metropolitan port had become, in practice, an enormous museum - a museum with very few visitors.

Trieste has been quiet since the early 1960s. Its status as a minor port of Italy, much disputed by Marshal Tito's Communist Yugoslavia in he immediate aftermath of the Second World War, had finally been stabilized by international treaty four years earlier. The Cold War had sealed it off from its hinterland and this once great metropolitan port had become, in practice, an enormous museum - a museum with very few visitors.

R. Bassett, Last days in old Europe (2019), 2

Justice, in British India, was far from blind: it was highly attentive to the skin colour of the defendant

Justice, in British India, was far from blind: it was highly attentive to the skin colour of the defendant. Crimes committed by whites against Indians attracted minimal punishment; and Englishman who shot dead his manservant got six months' jail time and a modest fine (then about 100 rupees), while an Indian convicted of attempted rape against an Englishwoman was sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment.

S. Tharoor, Inglorious Empire (2016), 90

It is said that when Nadir Shah and his forces returned home, they had stolen so much from India that all taxes were eliminated in Persia for the next three years

But less than a century and a half later, this Mughal empire was in a state of collapse after the spectacular sacking of Delhi by the Persian Nadir Shah in 1739 and the loot of all its treasures. The Mughal capital was pillaged and burned over eight long weeks; gold, silver, jewels and finery worth over 500 million rupees, were seized, along with the entire contents of the imperial treasury and the emperor's fabled Peacock throne; elephants and horses were commandeered; and 50,000 corpses littered the streets. It is said that when Nadir Shah and his forces returned home, they had stolen so much from India that all taxes were eliminated in Persia for the next three years.

S. Tharoor, Inglorious Empire, (2016) 3 

I find this starkness of this passage in Tharoor's book on 'What the British did to India' really odd. This is largely because it rather seems to undercut his arguments - the same as everyone else seems to to be clear implication here  - but also because of the bizarre opener: 150 years is ages. It's more than the gap between Henry VIII and the Glorious Revolution; the Domesday book and Magna Carta; or Napoleon and Versailles.

Theodorous says I shouldn't write poetry until I've studied the last thousand years

Theodorous says I shouldn't write poetry
until I've studied the last thousand years

of the canon, learnt it     off by heart
and can quote it at random, and imitate it

before attempting my own stuff, and he says
it's imperative I start with hendecasyllables

a la Pliny Jr, but I retaliated, saying
I found the lot of it B-O-R-I-N-G

B. Evaristo, The Emperor's babe (2001), 83-84

You dream of either owning slaves or freeing them

When you're a slave you dream
of either owning slaves or freeing them.

B. Evaristo, The Emperor's babe (2001), 25

I've just bought Hertfordshire, you know

I am a man of multiple interests: a senator,
military man, businessman, I undertake

trading missions for the government ,
and I'm a landowner,

I've just bought Hertfordshire, you know.

B. Evaristo, The Emperor's babe (2001), 15-16

The Kindly Ones is simply “Houellebecq does Nazism.”

Well-intentioned friends send me everything they can find about Jonathan Littell, and I am yet again forced to return to the subject. Things are not going well at all. I have just read the account of a speech he gave at a Normale Supérieure school, where he said: “Evil is committed by people like us, people who sleep, who shit, who fuck, and who have the same relationship as we do to the body and to the fear of death, with thought coming afterwards. All killers are like us.”

Fair enough. In fact, I agree completely. Here again is Hannah Arendt’s thesis, and here, again, I cannot deny its truth. But it is a very strange speech to justify his book, precisely because Littell seems to have done his utmost to invent the most singular character possible. Let us recall, for those few unfortunates who have not been able to read The Kindly Ones, that the SS veteran Aue is an intellectual who sleeps with his sister, kills his parents, actively participates in genocide, sucks off Robert Brasillach, survives a bullet in the head, is never separated from his Flaubert, and enjoys rolling in his shit from time to time. For a guy who is just like you and me, that is quite a list!

...

A poster on an Internet forum expresses the opinion that Max Aue [the protagonist in Jonathan Littel's The Kindly ones] “rings true because he is the mirror of his age.” What? No! He rings true (for certain, easily duped readers) because he is the mirror of our age: a postmodern nihilist, essentially. At no moment in the novel is it suggested that this character believes in Nazism. On the contrary, he is often critically detached from National Socialist doctrine — and in that sense, he can hardly be said to reflect the delirious fanaticism prevalent in his time. On the other hand, this detachment, this blasé attitude toward everything, this permanent malaise, this taste for philosophizing, this unspoken amorality, this morose sadism, and this terrible sexual frustration that constantly twists his guts… but of course! How did I not see it before? Suddenly, everything is clear. The Kindly Ones is simply “Houellebecq does Nazism.”

L. Binet, HhhH (2009), tr. S. Taylor (2012), unknown & 204

These both from the pages originally missing from Binet's text - and then put back in. They're here. I couldn't be bothered to re-find the first one, but it accurately reflects my view at the time of Littell's novel - i.e., it completely fails in it's stated purpose by making the protagonist so weird. 

Sport? What a load of fascist rubbish it is

Reading Heydrich's speech, I have three comments:

1. In the Czech state, as elsewhere, the feeblest defender of the values of the national education is the responsible minister . Having been a virulent anti-Nazi, Emmanuel Moravec became, after Munich, the most active collaborator in Hedrich's Czech government an the Germans' preferred Czech representative - much more so than senile old President Hácha. Local history books tend to call him 'the Czech Quisling'.
2. The staunchest defenders of the values of national education are teachers because, whatever we might otherwise think of them, they have the authority and the will be subversive. And they deserve praise for that.
3. Sport? What a load of fascist rubbish it is.

L. Binet, HhhH (2009), tr. S. Taylor (2012), 168

This is a terrible analysis. Sport and Education are potent, that's why they come under pressure. It's particularly weird though to look at sport in a Nazi context that way when the most famous sporting incident in Nazi Germany is the failure of ideological outcomes in the 1936 Olympics. One presumes that Binet, like me, was very bad at sport at school.

Vile Chamberlain, a man whose spinelessness is equalled only by his blindness.

Unfortunately, it is not yet Churchill who guides the destiny of Britain and the world, but the vile Chamberlain, a man whose spinelessness is equalled only by his blindness.

L. Binet, HhhH (2009), tr. S. Taylor (2012), 93

The very foundations of his fortune are laid deep in sacrilege, fortunes built out of deserted shrines and pillaged altars

The Duke of Devonshire issues a circular applying for subscriptions to oppose this Bill, and he charges us with robbery of God. Does he know – of course he knows – that the very foundations of his fortune are laid deep in sacrilege, fortunes built out of deserted shrines and pillaged altars . . . What is their story? Look at the whole story of the pillage of the Reformation. They robbed the Catholic Church, they robbed the monasteries, they robbed the altars, they robbed the almshouses, they robbed the poor and they robbed the dead. Then they come here when we are trying to seek at any rate to recover some part of this pillaged property for the poor for whom it was originally given, and they venture, with hands dripping with the fat of sacrilege, to accuse us of robbery of God.

D. Lloyd-George, debate on the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, May 1912, cited in G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 255

The millstones of Capital and Labour, the upper and the nether, grind slowly but exceeding small

And Liberalism . . . Liberalism, with its fatal trust in compromise, had evaded the issue onc e again. But, slide and wriggle as it would, there was a doom which it could not evade. The millstones of Capital and Labour, the upper and the nether, grind slowly but exceeding small, and Liberalism was caught between them. It might put off the evil hour, poor slippery old faith, but they would crush it in the end.

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 244

Something must certainly be done for them: not too much, of course, that would never do; but something

For Liberalism, after all, implies rather more than a political creed or an economic philosophy; it is a profoundly conscience-stricken state of mind. It is the final expression of everything which is respectable, God-fearing and frightened. The poor, it says, are always with us, and something must certainly be done for them: not too much, of course, that would never do; but something. The poor might reasonably be expected to have their own opinions about this; and, indeed, in certain periods of the Victorian era they gave vent to these opinions in a most disconcerting manner. But they, too, had been infected with the same disease. ‘Several toasts were given’ (so writes an observer of a workmen’s dinner during the prolonged erection, in the ’70s, of the Albert Memorial) ‘and many of the workmen spoke, almost all of them commencing by “Thanking God that they enjoyed good health”; some alluded to the temperance that prevailed amongst them, others observed how little swearing was ever heard, whilst all said how pleased and proud they were to be engaged on so great a work.’ (Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria, p. 324.)

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 181

Their methods were bad and mistaken; but their ultimate motives shine, as a lamp shines through a fog

But that is the truth. Mrs Pankhurst, her daughters and her colleagues – for all their extravagances – are among the makers of history; they were fighting their way out of death into life; and what they did had to be done. They submitted to the outrageous handling of policemen and toughs as early Christians once submitted to the lions. It is true that, if we were to meet some of those early Christians today, we should not choose them for a quiet drink in the bar or a cosy talk over the fireside. They were doubtless an unlikely collection of human beings. But the state of Roman civilization made them essential, and by their deaths they saved the world from heaven alone knows what moral ruin. The suffragettes were, in their way, equally unlikely and uncompanionable; yet they assisted woman no little way towards the rediscovery of the place which was really hers in the world. Their methods were bad and mistaken; but their ultimate motives shine, as a lamp shines through a fog. And, before they are subjected to the unkindly processes of narrative, one would like to pause here and do them honour.

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 135-6

He was less a Liberal than a Welshman on the loose

He was less a Liberal than a Welshman on the loose. He wanted the poor to inherit the earth, particularly if it was the earth of rich English landlords; and he wanted this with a sly, semi-educated passion which struck his parliamentary colleagues as being in very bad form. 

The Boer War first brought him into prominence. He fought against it tooth and nail and became generally hated as a leading pro-Boer – until the sad and sanguinary farce was over, when he was suddenly recognized as a man of vision. 

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 31

The House of Lords was extremely conservative, quite stupid, immensely powerful and a determined enemy of the Liberal Party

By 1910, the Liberals had reached a point where they could no longer advance; before them stood a barrier of Capital which they dared not attack. Behind them stood the House of Lords. In its political aspect, the House of Lords was extremely conservative, quite stupid, immensely powerful and a determined enemy of the Liberal Party.

...

In 1700 it was a little assembly of great nobles, jealous, stubborn, and perverse; in 1801, through a lavish creation of peerages, it had come to represent the opulent and landed classes. In this way the bribery of George III and the vision of William Pitt had worked to a common end. The Crown was well rid of an obstinate and capricious enemy; the Constitution had gained its first distinctly conservative element. For the Lords never again demonstrated any desire for change. They fought the Whig Reform Bill in 1832; they killed the Liberal Home Rule Bill in 1884.

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 23 & 25

He was strongly in favour of peace – that is to say, he liked his wars to be fought at a distance and, if possible, in the name of God

Whatever his political convictions may have been, the Englishman of the ’70s and ’80s was something of a Liberal at heart. He believed in freedom, free trade, progress and the Seventh Commandment. He also believed in reform. He was strongly in favour of peace – that is to say, he liked his wars to be fought at a distance and, if possible, in the name of God. 

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 22

At least there was no danger of them being exposed to anything dangerous, like an idea

Cats was also that increasing rarity, a musical that one could take children to. The tykes might die from vapidity poisoning, but at least there was no danger of them being exposed to anything dangerous, like an idea.

J. Kenrick, Musical theatre: a history (2008), 348

Evita left history to its own devices and made gobs of money

Both Sweeney and Evita were expensive productions with stunning stage direction by Harold Prince. Both won seven Tony awards, including Best Musical, in adjoining seasons. The key difference: Sweeney Todd made theatrical history but lost money, while Evita left history to its own devices and made gobs of money. This was not lost on producers and investors. It is easy to advocate artistic merit over financial concerns, but answer this: if you were investing $100,000 or more of your own money.

J. Kenrick, Musical theatre: a history (2008), 341

If you thought I was describing another show, that's understandable

The big opening chorus number had been a staple in musical theatre since Offenbach's time, with a huge chorus (preferably of females) there to grab the audience's attention. So the opening night regulars were caught off guard when a new Broadway musical began with a lone woman on stage in the middle of a busy morning. Moments later, a man came on to sing the opening number as a sole, with no ensemble in sight. The effect was fresh and charming, as was the heroine's dream ballet, where she got to choose between two suitors. No wonder Louisiana Purchase (1940, 444 performances) was a hit.

If you thought I was describing another show, that's understandable. Misinformed sources have suggested that Oklahoma! invented such features as a two-opening, a dream ballet, and (most laughably) the integration of song, dance, and dialogue. There is no question that Oklahoma! was a landmark work... but many of the seemingly "new" things in it had been brewing on Broadway for some time.

J. Kenrick, Musical theatre: a history (2008), 238 

An American cheese manufacturer convinces the government to raise tariffs on imported cheese and declare war on Switzerland

Back in 1927, the Gershwins had collaborated with George S. Kaufman on Strike up the band (1927), in which an American cheese manufacturer convinces the government to raise tariffs on imported cheese and declare war on Switzerland. He even offers to pay for the war if it is named after him. 

J. Kenrick, Musical theatre: a history (2008), 220

You know how dis ends. The horse, he wins the race, and the boy gets de girl. Now, you wanna see that, or you wanna hear Jolson sing?

In the delightful memoir All my friends (Putnam, 1989), George Burns explains how Jolson would stop a musical midscene and in Gus's pseudosouthern drawl say: "You know how dis ends. The horse, he wins the race, and the boy gets de girl. Now, you wanna see that, or you wanna hear Jolson sing?" He then sent the cast home and offered a prolonged selection of his hit songs.

J. Kenrick, Musical theatre: a history (2008), 159

But the Vatican refuses to accept this because of all the Saxons he killed

'Many people in Aachen consider him [Charlemagne] a saint,' said Stefanie, a willow-haired tour guide in the cathedral. 'They pray to him and they say miracles happened because of him. But the Vatican refuses to accept this because of all the Saxons he killed. As if all the other saints were so pure!' 

N. Jubber, Epic continent (2021), 149

He devotes fewer lines to God than to his beloved sword, Durandal

Roland makes vague references to Christianity, but he only prays at the very end of his life; and even then he devotes fewer lines to God than to his beloved sword, Durandal. Like the heroes of Germanic and Greek mythology, from Achilles to Beowulf, his true idol worldly status, measured by the blood you shed and the blood shed on your behalf.

...

With its odds and ends of ritual and relics, Rocamadour can feel like a theme park for pious Catholics... and gaze at a gleaming sword impaled in the rock face. That's what I was here for: to feast my eyes on Durandal, the French Excalibur.  

N. Jubber, Epic continent (2021), 140

A system whose latent capacity for mass travel was still far greater than its actual contribution to it

The tramways were the final links attaching Camberwell to the vast, haphazard, intricate structure of London's communications. The whole system worked like some self-regulating clearing house which permitted an almost infinite variety of journeys. It was a system nevertheless whose latent capacity for mass travel was in the 1870s still far greater than its actual contribution to it.

H.J. Dyos, Victorian Suburb: a study of the growth of Camberwell (1961), 75 

You are referring to the Immense Tyrant Without Compare

Here's the problem with Mandarin: move an inch outside your speciality, and there is no guarantee that any of the words will mean anything to you. I had been speaking Chinese for twenty years, and was in town to give a lecture on medieval history, but the strange sigils describing arcane translation nightmares, like McFlurry and McNugget, might as well have been Martian.

...

'What's that thing called,' I began wearily, 'which is very big probably the biggest thing that you have, and there are two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, all in a sesame seed bun?'

'Ah,' said the bespectacled youth before me, 'you are referring to the Immense Tyrant Without Compare (ju wu ba).'

At last, a new use for the archaic term for a Bronze Age overlord, now recognised by twenty-first-century Chinese teenagers as the word for a Big Mac. 

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 194-5

'He was lying,' Deng replied

Deng found himself sitting next to Shirley MacLaine ... She was fulsome in praise for some of the benefits of Mao's policies, and told Deng of a story she had heard about a Chinese intellectual who was actually grateful for the Cultural Revolution. Sent into the countryside to grow tomatoes, she said, the man said he had experienced a wonderful object lesson in realism in realism and human life.

'He was lying,' Deng replied. 

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 186

There is no subjunctive perfect in Chinese

There was something of a tussle within the family over who would translate Dr Chao's prose into English. Her daughter did much of the work, only for Chao's linguist husband to step in and pepper the account with hectoring qualifications - 'There is no subjunctive perfect in Chinese,' he harrumphs, in an entirely unnecessary footnote to a paragraph about what to say when someone serves you Shark's Fin Soup. But at the end of the family feuding a firm text remained, often in quaintly off-kilter English, and with a few translation decisions that would endure.

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 162

Louis II ‘the German’ hanged so many criminals that the archbishop of Mainz was forced to institute special measures to stop the corpses becoming a health hazard

Death sentences were passed far more frequently than they were implemented, because medieval kings could gain prestige from commuting them as an act of clemency, though this became less common under the Salians and Staufers. Lesser lords and commoners were always treated less favourably. Louis II ‘the German’ hanged so many criminals that the archbishop of Mainz was forced to institute special measures to stop the corpses becoming a health hazard

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 615

Codification and other efforts at standardization proceeded quite slowly

Codification and other efforts at standardization proceeded quite slowly. It took 52 years to dismantle the tariff barriers between Austrian provinces after 1775, while even after the impact of Napoleon, Baden still used 112 different measurements of length, 92 measurements for square measures, 65 for dry goods, 163 for fruit, 123 for liquids, 65 for alcohol, and 80 separate definitions of a pound weight.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 540

All other German towns [controlled] only 100 square kilometres or less

Italy, where around 25 cities each controlled at least 1,000 square kilometres, with Florence possessing 12,000 square kilometres by 1400, while Venice amassed nearly three times that across 1339-1428. By contrast, only Nuremberg came close, with 1,650 square kilometres, while Ulm had 930 square kilometres and all other German towns only 100 square kilometres or less.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016),  518

The Empire is a multicoloured patchwork of dynastic territories compared to the solid blocks of colour used for other, supposedly, more centralised states

Nothing underscores the nineteenth-century interpretation more clearly: the Empire is a multicoloured patchwork of dynastic territories compared to the solid blocks of colour used for other, supposedly, more centralised states. Yet most maps produced prior to 1806 showed the Empire with clear outer boundaries divided into the Kreise, its official regional subdivisions. Territories were often named and sometimes marked, but did not dominate.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016),  253-4

Soybeans have higher nutrient values than millet, but a lower rate of digestion

The Zhou people's tendency to boil everything would not be all that helpful with soybeans, and would lead to tasteless sludge. Soybeans have higher nutrient values than millet, but a lower rate of digestion, at 22 per cent if they are merely boiled, but rising to 65 per cent with fermentation. In other words, they can only come into their own with the introduction of more advanced technology for cooking and preparation. When they do, they offer the best yield per acre of protein, compared to the same land used for rearing milk, eggs, or meat.    

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 28

She had no hesitation in reporting them to her father

[Isabella] was a woman of conscience; when she found that two of her sisters-in-law were guilty of adultery with two French knights, she had no hesitation in reporting them to her father. It is not difficult to find instances of her clemency: ....

I. Mortimer, The perfect king: the life of Edward III (2006), 25

This feels like weak evidence for her conscious and especially her clemency. The knights in question were executed and Isabella's motives are ambiguous.

Saxony, birthplace of Protestantism, was now under Catholic rule

Competition for imperial favour encouraged 31 leading princes to convert to Catholicism between 1651 and 1769, including Elector Friedrich August ‘the Strong’ of Saxony in 1697, followed by his son in 1712. Saxony, birthplace of Protestantism, was now under Catholic rule.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 129

His most grievous sins included cloistering his relations to remove them as rivals to his succession in 814, mortally blinding his nephew for revolt, breaking a sworn treaty with his sons, and allowing his marriage to deteriorate to the point of his wife having an affair with a courtier.

Louis I is known in Germany as ‘the Pious’, but in France as le Débonnaire; both sobriquets capture aspects of his behaviour. He was sufficiently sinful to require three rites of penance during his reign, yet devout enough to perform them. His most grievous sins included cloistering his relations to remove them as rivals to his succession in 814, mortally blinding his nephew for revolt, breaking a sworn treaty with his sons, and allowing his marriage to deteriorate to the point of his wife having an affair with a courtier. Interpretations differ whether the Carolingian bishops regarded him as an errant member of their flock or used the rites of penance a show trials to discredit him politically.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 30

Potosi and much of Upper Peru remained divided into ethnic factions well into the seventeenth century

Whereas other parts of Spanish America witnessed a tendency towards homogenization of white, peninsular Spaniards (peninsulares), who sometimes clashed with native-born and mixed Spaniards (criollos), Potosi and much of Upper Peru remained divided into ethnic factions well into the seventeenth century.

K. Lane, Potosi (2019), 112

What made Habsburg Spain Europe's most formidable war machine was money, or more accurately, credit

What made Habsburg Spain Europe's most formidable war machine was money, or more accurately, credit: the ability to borrow huge sums to field armies and assemble navies. What gave Spain credit was in large part an early flood of silver from Potosi, the bonanza that came close on the heels of Atahualpa's treasure.

K. Lane, Potosi (2019), 49

The general historical chapters represent a miserable level of performance

One of the most disappointing of all county histories is Polwhele's Devon. The general historical chapters represent a miserable level of performance, though the parochial descriptions are valuable. Even so, Polwhele covered only a small part of the county and the work as a whole is third-rate. 

W.G. Hoskins, Local history in England (2nd ed. 1972), 20 

In its first century, Potosi produced nearly half the world's silver

Potosi produced more silver, according to official tax records, than all Mexico combined before 1650. In its first century, Potosi produced nearly half the world's silver. In the longer term, the amount of silver taxed between 1545 and 1810 ... constituted nearly 20 percent of all the known silver produced in the world across 265 years.

K. Lane, Potosi (2019), 8

Cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns make up 60-70% of the seafood eaten in the UK

Despite its island credentials, Britain - bafflingly - is not known as a nation enamoured of fish, other than its favourite, battered, deep-fried 'fish and chips' form. Despite the variety found off our coasts, our consumption centres on only five main species: cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns make up 60-70% of the seafood eaten in the UK.

J. Linford, The missing ingredient (2018), 64 

Disturbing imponderables like 'character', 'pure luck', 'ability to mix', and 'boldness' have a way of tipping the scales

[the scholarship boy] is unhappy in a society which presets largely a picture of disorder which is huge and sprawling, not limited, ordered, and centrally heated; in which the toffee-apples are not accurately given to those who work hardest nor even to the most intelligent; but in which disturbing imponderables like 'character', 'pure luck', 'ability to mix', and 'boldness'  have a way of tipping the scales. 

R. Hoggart, The uses of literacy (1957), 270

Their education is unlikely to have left them with any historical panorama or with any idea of a continuing tradition

Their education is unlikely to have left them with any historical panorama or with any idea of a continuing tradition ... a great many people, though they may possess a considerable amount of disconnected information, have little idea of an historical or ideological pattern or process. Their minds rarely go back beyond the times of their own grandparents 

R. Hoggart, The uses of literacy (1957), 167

This is written about the working class, but does seem to be about all people. Maybe that was not so in the 1950s.

These views usually prove to be a bundle of largely unexamined and orally-transmitted tags, enshrining generalizations, prejudices, and half-truths

In general most working-class people are non-political and non-metaphysical in their outlook. The important things in life so far as they can see, are other things. They may appear to have views on general matters - on religion, on politics, and so on - but these views usually prove to be a bundle of largely unexamined and orally-transmitted tags, enshrining generalizations, prejudices, and half-truths, and elevated by epigrammatic phrasing into the status of maxims. As I remarked earlier, these are often contradictory of each other; but are not thought about, not intellectually considered.  

R. Hoggart, The uses of literacy (1957), 86

The speculation, extortion, intimidation and protection rackets that characterise Mafia activity were first practiced and perfected in the mid-nineteenth century among the citrus gardens of the Conca d'Oro

It's often assumed that this kind of organised crime was the ancient residue of feudal traditions that had evolved into something ugly among the most impoverished, isolated and backward inhabitants of Sicily. In reality many of the new mafiosi were aristocrats, and all of them were modern entrepreneurs who had become the most powerful landowners on the Conca d'Oro. The speculation, extortion, intimidation and protection rackets that characterise Mafia activity were first practiced and perfected in the mid-nineteenth century among the citrus gardens of the Conca d'Oro, though they continue to blight politics, hobble the economy and cripple the lives of the individuals on the island to this day. 

H. Attlee,  The land where lemons grow (2014), 69

Norman minds dissolved in the vapours of Muslim culture

The Norman conquest of Sicily turned into something of a scandal. Norman minds dissolved in the vapours of Muslim culture. Austere knights of Honfleur and Bayeux suddenly appeared in the streets of Palermo wearing flowing desert robes, and attracted to themselves harems of staggering diversity, while the Church raged. Norman pashas built their own alhambras. the Normans went Muslim with such remarkable style that even Muslim poets were soon praising the new Norman Xanadus.

John McPhee, quoted in H. Attlee,  The land where lemons grow (2014), 56

This is historical nonsense. John McPhee has clearly given no thought to the private lives of the Normans in Normandy. 

This makes up around half the surviving literature of ancient Greece

Galen began writing as a teenager, and this explains, in part, at least, his extraordinary output - 'fatiguingly diffuse', as one historian put it - some three million words that are collectively known as the Galenic corpus. Astonishingly, this makes up around half the surviving literature of ancient Greece, but is only a fraction of the ten million words he is estimated to have written.

V. Moller, The map of knowledge (2019), 49-50