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