Nothing conserves like poverty

Sometimes neglect is good. In the city the rich folks live on the hill. In the country it's the poor folk. The big beef farmers and the corn barons have the flat land. Hill farmers are frequently too capital-lacking to make changes in the landscape. Or spray gallons of herbicides on to it. Nothing conserves like poverty. One summer I let the field go, instead of shuffling livestock on to it.

The peasant poet John Clare called plants 'green memorials'. By late June the field had sprouted flowers I'd forgotten existed, flowers such as knapweed and bugle, which were testament to an agricultural usage other than animal parking lot.

J. Lewis-Stempel, Meadowland (2014), 11-12

Americans would eventually get to share most of the advantages of Britain’s forced opening of China’s ports without any of the violence

As for the American traders at Canton, in some ways they were the war’s greatest beneficiaries, for they would eventually get to share most of the advantages of Britain’s forced opening of China’s ports without any of the violence or the lasting stain on their national character.

S. R. Platt, Imperial Twilight (2018), 416

As much as one-tenth of Britain’s national revenue derived from the trade at Canton

The [East India] Company’s income from the China trade was completely swamping its revenues from India: in the first decade of the 1800s, the imports from Canton provided two-thirds of the entire sales income of the East India Company in London. By the latter part of that decade the China portion of its trade was bringing in record profits while the India trade operated in some years at a net loss. The effect was, first, to create a huge increase in the government’s tax revenue from the China trade—to the point that by some estimates as much as one-tenth of Britain’s national revenue derived from the trade at Canton. By corollary, the growing reliance of the British government on its tax revenues from the Company’s tea also meant that the stability of affairs in Canton became a matter of serious national interest. Any interruption to the China trade could interfere with Britain’s ability to finance its war. 

S. R. Platt, Imperial Twilight (2018), 88-89

You may not want to spend too many years of your life here, but as you see it in the early 1830s, Canton hardly seems the kind of place to start a war.

The entire formal trade of Europe and America with China, the largest empire in existence, goes on here in a space of just twelve acres — less, some like to point out, than the footprint of one of the pyramids in Egypt. You may not want to spend too many years of your life here, but as you see it in the early 1830s, Canton hardly seems the kind of place to start a war. 

No event casts a longer shadow over China’s modern history than the Opium War. Sparked by an explosive series of events that took place in the Canton factory compound in 1839, the war would end in 1842 with China’s humiliating defeat and a treaty all but dictated by the British aggressors, setting a disastrous pattern for the century to come. Textbooks in China on “modern” history, as a rule, take the Opium War as their starting point, the moment when China left its traditional past behind and was dragged forcibly into the world of European imperialism. The war occupies that place not because it was so destructive; in fact, it was relatively small and contained. It caused none of the large-scale social dislocation that China’s major internal wars of the nineteenth century like the Taiping Rebellion did. It did not topple the ruling dynasty or even remotely threaten to do so. There weren’t even that many battles fought.

But the symbolic power of the Opium War if almost limitless. It has long stood as the point where China's weakness was laid bare before the world, the opening of a "Century of Humiliation".

S. R. Platt, Imperial Twilight (2018), xxi-xxii

But when medicine inures you to the idea of life, to survival, then it has failed utterly

To me, these were miracles enough. It is an old complaint about the practice of medicine that it inures you to the idea of death. But when medicine inures you to the idea of life, to survival, then it has failed utterly. The novelist Thomas Wolfe, recalling a lifelong struggle with illness, wrote in his last letter, “I’ve made a long voyage and been to a strange country, and I’ve seen the dark man very close.” I had not made the journey myself, and I had only seen the darkness reflected in the eyes of others. But surely, it was the most sublime moment of my clinical life to have watched that voyage in reverse, to encounter men and women returning from the strange country—to see them so very close, clambering back. 

S. Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies (2010), 400

In God we trust. All others must have data.

“The clinician, no matter how venerable, must accept the fact that experience, voluminous as it might be, cannot be employed as a sensitive indicator of scientific validity,” Fisher wrote in an article. He was willing to have faith in divine wisdom, but not in Halsted as divine wisdom. “In God we trust,” he brusquely told a journalist. “All others [must] have data.”

S. Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies (2010), 200

New drugs appeared at an astonishing rate

New drugs appeared at an astonishing rate: by 1950, more than half the medicines in common medical use had been unknown merely a decade earlier. Perhaps even more significant than these miracle drugs, shifts in public health and hygiene also drastically altered the national physiognomy of illness. Typhoid fever, a contagion whose deadly swirl could decimate entire districts in weeks, melted away as the putrid water supplies of several cities were cleansed by massive municipal efforts. Even tuberculosis, the infamous “white plague” of the nineteenth century, was vanishing, its incidence plummeting by more than half between 1910 and 1940, largely due to better sanitation and public hygiene efforts. The life expectancy of Americans rose from forty-seven to sixty-eight in half a century, a greater leap in longevity than had been achieved over several previous centuries.

S. Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies (2010), 22

Hummingbirds are often thought of as having exceptionally high metabolic rates, but a bumblebee’s is roughly 75 per cent higher

This in turn enabled them to calculate how much energy bees burn in flight: an estimate of about 1.2 kJh-1. That figure may not mean a lot, so let me contextualise by saying that a running man uses up the calories in a Mars bar in about one hour. A man-sized bumblebee (which would, I admit, be pretty terrifying) would exhaust the same calories in less than thirty seconds. Hummingbirds are often thought of as having exceptionally high metabolic rates, but a bumblebee’s is roughly 75 per cent higher.

D. Goulson, A sting in the tale: my adventures with bumblebees (2013), 33

Rain was London’s benison, the absolution for its grit and dust

Williams liked rain. Sunny afternoons on a deckchair in Regent’s Park could be pleasant when he felt like nattering with admirers, but it was rain that he associated with poetry: ‘Caught in a shower of light rain: it was like a mountain mist descending.’ It pleased him that other people were deterred by wet weather, and that the pavements were cleared by a downpour, and that car headlights glittered and were refracted in the puddles, and that afterwards the streets seemed cleansed. Rain was London’s benison, the absolution for its grit and dust. 

C. Stevens, Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams (2010), loc. 5,333

That’s where all your lovely John Donne stuff turns out to be a load of crap

All problems have to be solved eventually by oneself and that’s where all your lovely John Donne stuff turns out to be a load of crap because, in the last analysis a man is an island. He may like to communicate but if he cannot it doesn’t kill him. But enough of seriousness, you are on holiday and it’s all whoops and bonnet over the windmill!

C. Stevens, Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams (2010), loc. 4,129

Yess, I can do it, dear, cos I know I go home and say my prayers! I’m pure

Bill Cotton, now BBC head of variety, warned the monologues must be free from double entendres, but Williams took no notice. The night before, he had packed a year’s supply into a return appearance on The Eamonn Andrews Show. Stanley Baxter phoned to scold him – how could a man who boasted of his virginal sex-life sit and flirt with Roger Moore on national television, and call him ‘a great dish’? Williams was defiant: ‘Yess, I can do it, dear, cos I know I go home and say my prayers! I’m pure.’

C. Stevens, Born brilliant: the life of Kenneth Williams (2010), loc. 3,791

I couldn’t stand the plumbing and the garlic

‘The south of Spain,’ Williams remembered later, ‘I thought it sounded rather grand. Only I’d never been anywhere except in the army and, as it turned out, the holiday was a disaster. I’m really terribly insular. I couldn’t stand the plumbing and the garlic.’ 

C. Stevens, Born brilliant: the life of Kenneth Williams (2010), loc. 2,691

He could have straddled the world; instead, he lived all his adult life in a series of apartments along the Euston and Marylebone Road

That notion of innate genius, mysterious and unearned, is at the heart of my fascination with Williams. He was brilliant, an apparently limitless talent – but his career was contained within tight boundaries. He never made millions. He did not conquer Hollywood, nor Broadway, nor Vegas. He did not make TV spectaculars or dramas or sitcoms, though he appeared to be a gift for any of them. The greatest playwrights of the age – Orton, Pinter, Bolt – created roles for him, but his theatre work is largely forgotten. He could have straddled the world; instead, he lived all his adult life in a series of apartments along the Euston and Marylebone Road, and all of the buildings can be glimpsed by taking a 205 bus from St Pancras to Paddington station.

C. Stevens, Born brilliant: the life of Kenneth Williams (2010), loc. 51.

This may overstate the genius of Kenneth Williams, but the rest of the book is clear on the self-inflicted nature of the constraints that did define his career and his life.  

A man starved all his life will never rebel.

A man starved all his life will never rebel. Up north there was no rebellion. No one raised his voice or his hand there. But just let the subject start to eat his fill and then try to take the bowl away, and immediately he rises in rebellion. The usefulness of going hungry is that a hungry man thinks only of bread. He's all wrapped up in the thought of food. He loses the remains of his vitality in that thought, and he no longer has either the desire or the will to seek pleasure through the temptation of disobedience. Just think : Who destroyed our Empire? Who reduced it to ruin? Neither those who had too much, nor those who had nothing, but those who had a bit. Yes, one should always beware of those who have a bit, because they are the worst, they are the greediest, it is they who push upward.

R. Kapuściński, The Emperor (1978), tr. W.R. Brand and K.Mroczkowska-Brand (1983), 113

Germame took bribes and used them to build schools

So the dignitaries started their denunciations in monosyllables, hints, whispers, but then more and more boldly (even if still informally), delicately, dropping hints in conversational lulls - that Germame took bribes and used them to build schools. 

Now just imagine how worried these dignitaries must have been. After all, it was understandable that a governor accepted tributes; all the dignitaries accepted tributes. Power begat wealth, as it had since the beginning of the world. But the abnormality of it was this, that a governor should use these tributes to build schools. And the example at the top was a command to subordinates, which meant that all the dignitaries should give money for schools. Now just for a moment let us admit a base thought. Let us say that a second Germame springs up in a second province and starts to give away his bribes. Immediately we would have a mutiny of the dignitaries, protesting against this principle of giving away bribes. The result: the end of the Empire. A fine prospect-at first a few pennies, and finally the fall of the monarchy. 

R. Kapuściński, The Emperor (1978), tr. W.R. Brand and K.Mroczkowska-Brand (1983), 66

The King of Kings preferred bad ministers

I'll come right out and say it: the King of Kings preferred bad ministers. And the King of Kings preferred them because he liked to appear in a favorable light by contrast. How could he show himself favorably if he were surrounded by good ministers? The people would be disoriented. Where would they look for help? On whose wisdom and kindness would they depend? Everyone would have been good and wise. What disorder would have broken out in the Empire then! Instead of one sun, fifty would be shining, and everyone would pay homage to a privately chosen planet. No, my dear friend, you cannot expose the people to such disastrous freedom. There can be only one sun. Such is the order of nature, and anything else is a heresy. But you can be sure that His Majesty shined by contrast. How imposingly and kindly he shone, so that our people had no doubts about who was the sun and who the shadow.

R. Kapuściński, The Emperor (1978), tr. W.R. Brand and K.Mroczkowska-Brand (1983), 33-34

He didn’t need to be bold any more because he had made himself plenty of power

Babamukuru, I knew, was different. He hadn’t cringed under the weight of his poverty. Boldly, Babamukuru had defied it. Through hard work and determination he had broken the evil wizards’ spell. Babamukuru was now a person to be reckoned with in his own right. He didn’t need to bully anybody any more. Especially not Maiguru, who was so fragile and small she looked as though a breath of wind would carry her away. Nor could I see him bullying Nyasha. My cousin was pretty and bold and sharp. You never thought about Babamukuru as being handsome or ugly, but he was completely dignified. He didn’t need to be bold any more because he had made himself plenty of power. Plenty of power. Plenty of money. A lot of education. Plenty of everything. When you have a lot of anything it makes you feel good to give a bit of it away.

T. Dangarembga, Nervous conditions (1988), loc 934

Real food tastes like dirt, water, and exertion

Over time, the guns and tents and sleeping bags were wrecked. So they learned to tan skins, sew with sinew, hunt with handmade bows, sleep comfortably on the ground and in the open. The salt was the thing that lasted the longest. And after it was gone they discovered that real food tastes like dirt, water, and exertion.

D. Cook, The new wilderness (202), loc 859

Measured in these terms it is clear that during the Wars of the Roses English townsmen were more relaxed than they had been in earlier centuries

From the thirteenth century onwards most towns financed their building operations by being granted the right to levy a toll on goods coming into the town for sale. This toll was known as murage. In the fifteenth century several new sources of financial aid were found, the most popular being the receipt of a grant from customs duties to meet the cost of a sea-port’s fortification. As a crude barometer of the effect of the Wars of the Roses on the outlook of municipal authorities we can make a count at ten-year intervals of the number of towns receiving grants of murage or other forms of financial aid for the same purpose. In 1460 there were nine; 1470, again nine; in 1480 only six, and by 1490 it was down to four. One hundred years earlier the same count shows seven in 1360, seventeen in 1370, fifteen in 1380 and fifteen in 1390. Two hundred years earlier it had been fourteen in 1260, seventeen in 1270, and ten in 1280 and 1290. The totals for these decades, though somewhat artificial, are very revealing: fifty-one in the thirteenth century, fifty-four in the fourteenth and only twenty-eight in the fifteenth. Measured in these terms it is clear that during the Wars of the Roses English townsmen were more relaxed than they had been in earlier centuries, though possibly fractionally more worried than they had been in the previous four decades (1420-50) when the total is twenty-six.

J. Gillingham, The wars of the Roses (1981), 12

It is a custom in England that the victors in battle kill nobody

In the Wars of the Roses casualties were limited precisely because they were civil wars. On both sides the commanders were anxious to win popular support, not lose it by indulging in bloody massacres. Thus one contemporary observer of the wars, the shrewd French politician Philippe de Commynes noted that ‘it is a custom in England that the victors in battle kill nobody, especially none of the ordinary soldiers, because everyone wants to please them.

J. Gillingham, The wars of the Roses (1981), 12

Edward was a deeply unfashionable name in 1239

Edward was a deeply unfashionable name in 1239 – no king or nobleman had been lumbered with it since the Norman Conquest, because it belonged to the side that had lost. Edward was an Old English name, and it sounded as odd and outlandish to Norman ears after 1066 as other Old English names – Egbert, Æthelred, Egfrith – still sound to us today.

M. Morris, A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain, (2008), 3

Outside Germany, little is known about this. Inside Germany, it is part of almost every family's history.

All in all, by 1950, between twelve and fourteen million Germans had either fled or been forced from their homes in Central and Eastern Europe. Most had nowhere to go. Outside Germany, little is known about this. Inside Germany, it is part of almost every family's history.

N. MacGregor, Germany: memories of a nation (2014), 477 

So the whole of Bismarck's career absolutely rested on the longevity of the old man

Bismarck was able to achieve all this not just because he was a shrewd politician, but because Kaiser Wilhelm lived for ninety-one years, as Jonathan Steinberg explains:

'Wilhelm I was born in 1797. Had he lived his biblical three score and ten, he would have died in 1867, before the unification of Germany. Friedrich III would have come to the throne as a youngish man and he would have fired Bismarck. He in fact did not come to the throne in 1867, nor in 1877, nor in 1887, because the old man would not die, and as long as Wilhelm I was there - he died in March 1888 at the age of ninety-one - Bismarck had a job. So the whole of Bismarck's career absolutely rested on the longevity of the old man.' 

N. MacGregor, Germany: memories of a nation (2014), 394

For they are cities free. Where Bismarck has no right to be

As late as the 1880s, even though the Hansa was long gone, it is said that children would chant: 'Hamburg, Lubeck and Bremen. No one can shame 'em. For they are cities free. Where Bismarck has no right to be.'

N. MacGregor, Germany: memories of a nation (2014), 244

If you're planning to run onstage in a gorilla suit and surprise someone, always check first to see whether the person you're surprising has taken so much acid before the show that they are unable to differentiate between a man in a gorilla costume and an actual gorilla

I thought it would be funny if I hired a gorilla costume and ran onstage during their [Iggy Pop and the Stooges'] set  - you know, just adding to the general mayhem and anarchy. Instead , I was taught an important life lesson, which is this: if you're planning to run onstage in a gorilla suit and surprise someone, always check first to see whether the person you're surprising has taken so much acid before the show that they are unable to differentiate between a man in a gorilla costume and an actual gorilla. I discovered this when my appearance was greeted not with gales of laughter but the sight of Iggy Pop screaming and shrinking away from me in terror.  

E.H. John, Me (2019), 332-3 

Do you take a lot of cocaine?

 [Princess Alexandra] had sat politely through the performance, then come backstage, and got the conversation off to a flying start by smiling sweetly and asking, 'How do you have so much energy onstage? Do you take a lot of cocaine?'

E.H. John, Me (2019), 168

What the hell are you thinking? Ridiculous. Makes you look like a bloody fool. Get rid of it.

[Prince Philip, to Elton John:] 'You live near Windsor Castle, don't you?' he asked. 'Have you seen the bloody idiot who drives round that area in his ghastly car? It's bright yellow with a ridiculous stripe on it. Do you know him?'

'Yes, your Highness it's actually me.'

'Really?' He didn't seem taken aback by this news at all. In fact, he seemed quite pleased to have the idiot in question, so that he could give him the benefit of his advice. 'What the hell are you thinking? Ridiculous. Makes you look like a bloody fool. Get rid of it.'

E.H. John, Me (2019), 152-3

Bob Dylan [playing charades]. He couldn't get the hang of the 'how many syllables?' thing at all

Simon and Garfunkel had dinner one night, then played charades. At least they tried to play charades. They were terrible at it. The best thing I can say about them is that they were better than Bob Dylan. He couldn't get the hang of the 'how many syllables?' thing at all. He couldn't do 'sounds like' either come to think of it. One of the best lyricists in the world, the greatest man of letters on the history of rock music, and he can't seem to tell you whether a word's got one syllable or two syllables or what it rhymes with! He was so hopeless, I started throwing oranges at him.

E.H. John, Me (2019), 129

Character, young man

One summer Saturday afternoon, John and I were sitting outside the bungalow having a snack, when we noticed a sixty-something lady who looked a little like Katharine Hepburn cycling up our drive. It was Katharine Hepburn: 'I'm staying with Bryan Forbes - he said it would be OK if I used your pool.' John and I just nodded, dumbstruck. Five minutes later, she reappeared in a swimsuit, complaining there was a dead frog in the pool. When I dithered about how to get it out. I'm a bit squeamish about things like that - she just jumped in and grabbed it with her hand. I asked her how she could bear to touch it.

'Character, young man,' she nodded sternly.

E.H. John, Me (2019), 96-7

City centres across the UK were ripped out and destroyed to make way for the car far more comprehensively than the Luftwaffe

Imagine, by way of contrast, an Italian transport minister suggesting that the historic centres of Italy’s towns and cities be pulled down in order to make space for the growing number of Cinquecentos. They would be ridiculed and laughed out of office, and yet city centres across the UK were ripped out and destroyed to make way for the car far more comprehensively than the Luftwaffe (which had, in places such as Coventry, started the process) had ever achieved.

C. Wolmar, Are trams socialist? (2016), Kindle loc 382

An advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force

The Dowager Duchess, indeed, was there – she had promptly hastened to her son’s side and was living heroically in furnished lodgings, but the younger Duchess thought her mother-in-law more energetic than dignified. There was no knowing what she might do if left to herself. She might even give an interview to a newspaper reporter.

...

‘It’s no good, Murbles,’ he said. ‘Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.’

D.L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness (1926), 83 and 267

Country music was the most segregated kind of music in America

So I said, Country music. The average Vietnamese cannot bear it. That southern twang, that peculiar rhythm, those strange stories — the music drives us a little crazy. Perfect, Claude said. So what song’s it going to be? After a little research, I procured a record from the jukebox of one of the Saigon bars popular with white soldiers. “Hey, Good Lookin’ ” was by the famous Hank Williams, the country music icon whose nasal voice personified the utter whiteness of the music, at least to our ears. Even someone as exposed to American culture as I shivered a little on hearing this record, somewhat scratchy from having been played so many times. Country music was the most segregated kind of music in America, where even whites played jazz and even blacks sang in the opera. Something like country music was what lynch mobs must have enjoyed while stringing up their black victims. Country music was not necessarily lynching music, but no other music could be imagined as lynching’s accompaniment. Beethoven’s Ninth was the opus for Nazis, concentration camp commanders, and possibly President Truman as he contemplated atomizing Hiroshima, classical music the refined score for the high-minded extermination of brutish hordes. Country music was set to the more humble beat of the red-blooded, bloodthirsty American heartland. It was for fear of being beaten to this beat that black soldiers avoided the Saigon bars where their white comrades kept the jukeboxes humming with Hank Williams and his kind.

Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer (2015), Kindle loc. 1,168

He even included a league table in his diary, ranking his friends in order

[Hugh] Walpole was born in Auckland, New Zealand, where his father - later the bishop of Edinburgh - was canon of St Mary's Cathedral. The family was British, and Walpole's grandfather was the younger brother of the first Prime Minister. After they returned to England, he set his heart on establishing himself as a writer. His fierce ambition was not accompanied by a think skin. He wanted everyone to love him, but in his drive to build a reputation and the right connections he sometimes trampled on the feelings of others. He even included a league table in his diary, ranking his friends in order. Yet he was easily bruised by criticism and incurably jealous . When Hilaire Belloc described P.G. Wodehouse as the best English writer of the day, Wodehouse thought it hilarious, but Walpole was hurt. His wealth provoked envy and he alienated people through trivial disagreements. 

M. Edwards, The Golden age of murder (2015), 164

I can never think of Walpole without thinking of Maugham's portrait in Cakes and Ale, which I love.

Scientific detection is 'too easy'.

 For all its associations with sportsmanship, cricket is governed by complicated laws, and Milne reckoned that if the detective novel was a game, readers and writers need to know the rules. When The Red House Mystery was reprinted, he set out half a dozen key points:

1. The story should be written in good English.
2. Love interest is undesirable.
3. Both detective and villain should be amateurs.
4. Scientific detection is 'too easy'.
5. The reader should know as much as the detective.
6. There should be a Watson: it is better for the detective 'to watsonize' than soliliquize.

M. Edwards, The Golden age of murder (2015), 113

He detested the street-bawling, tract-peddling evangelism of the professional atheists

He called himself an 'agnostic' instead of an 'atheist' only because he detested the street-bawling, tract-peddling evangelism of the professional atheists.

S. Lewis, It can't happen here (1935), 35-36

You put the evidence under their noses, and they start getting teary over snowball fights

This is the whole difficulty of dealing with them, men who are always talking about ancient pedigrees, and boyhood friendships, and things that happened when you were still trading wool on the Antwerp exchange. You put the evidence under their noses, and they start getting teary over snowball fights.

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 510

Because what is there, but affairs?

He finds himself praying: this child, his half-formed heart now beating against the stone floor, let him be sanctified by this moment, and let him be like his father’s father, like his Tudor uncles; let him be hard, alert, watchful of opportunity, wringing use from the smallest turn of fortune. If Henry lives twenty years, Henry who is Wolsey’s creation, and then leaves this child to succeed him, I can build my own prince: to the glorification of God and the commonwealth of England. Because I will not be too old. Look at Norfolk, already he is sixty, his father was seventy when he fought at Flodden. And I shall not be like Henry Wyatt and say, now I am retiring from affairs. Because what is there, but affairs?

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 466-7

I really like this. Not least because Mantel's Cromwell would obviously have wanted any king to be like Henry VII. Mostly, however, I like the vocalisation of the channel that ambition must run for people like Cromwell.

Not the sort of archbishop we like to encourage at the moment

Any year before this, the king would have gone to pray at Becket’s shrine and leave a rich offering. But Becket was a rebel against the Crown, not the sort of archbishop we like to encourage at the moment.

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 395

The world is not run from where he thinks

How can he explain to him? The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from his border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he has never imagined; from Lisbon, from where the ships with sails of silk drift west and are burned up in the sun. Not from castle walls, but from counting houses, not by the call of the bugle but by the click of the abacus, not by the grate and click of the mechanism of the gun but by the scrape of the pen on the page of the promissory note that pays for the gun and the gunsmith and the powder and shot.

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 378

This I don't think is historically accurate. The banking houses of the early modern era a) went bust a lot and b) got themselves noble titles as quickly as they could. But it's foretelling where the world is going, even if it hasn't quite got there yet.  

You would not like to be in Harry Percy’s country

‘My lady,’ he turns to Anne, ‘you would not like to be in Harry Percy’s country. For you know he would do as those northern lords do, and keep you in a freezing turret up a winding stair, and only let you come down for your dinner. And just as you are seated, and they are bringing in a pudding made of oatmeal mixed with the blood of cattle they have got in a raid, my lord comes thundering in, swinging a sack – oh, sweetheart, you say, a present for me? and he says, aye, madam, if it please you, and opens the sack and into your lap rolls the severed head of a Scot.’

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 345

A child of impossible perfection

Grace dies in his arms; she dies easily, as naturally as she was born. He eases her back against the damp sheet: a child of impossible perfection, her fingers uncurling like thin white leaves. I never knew her, he thinks; I never knew I had her. It has always seemed impossible to him that some act of his gave her life, some unthinking thing that he and Liz did, on some unmemorable night. They had intended the name to be Henry for a boy, Katherine for a girl, and, Liz had said, that will do honour to your Kat as well. But when he had seen her, swaddled, beautiful, finished and perfect, he had said quite another thing, and Liz had agreed. We cannot earn grace. We do not merit it.

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 152

I shall get his father down from the borders, and if the prodigal defies him, he will be tossed out of his heirdom on his prodigal snout

The cardinal smashes his fist on the table. ‘I’ll tell you how. I shall get his father down from the borders, and if the prodigal defies him, he will be tossed out of his heirdom on his prodigal snout. The earl has other sons, and better. And if you don’t want the Butler marriage called off, and your lady daughter shrivelling unmarriageable down in Sussex and costing you bed and board for the rest of her life, you will forget any talk of pledges, and witnesses – who are they, these witnesses? I know those kind of witnesses who never show their faces when I send for them. So never let me hear it. Pledges. Witnesses. Contracts. God in Heaven!’ 

Boleyn is still smiling. He is a poised, slender man; it takes the effort of every finely tuned muscle in his body to keep the smile on his face.

H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009), 69

I wondered how I would have looked at this painting had I been Christian

I wondered how I would have looked at this painting [Duccio's Madonna dei Frncesani] had I been Christian. Perhaps I would have liked it less, or liked it more, or liked it in a way that was beside the point, to do with its religious symbolism, and I would have then thought that was the point, that was why it had sustained my interest, and I might have been moved and delighted in a subtly but profoundly different way

H. Matar, A month in Siena (2019), 80

Our measuring jugs are inadequate, too small and too vague.

Our measuring jugs are inadequate, too small and too vague. A half pint seems useless to me, and measures marked on the outside, like the popular and cheap Pyrex glass jugs, don't give accurate reading for small quantities, Enamel jugs get chipped. Plastic jugs are hideous, they don't last, and they are not accurate. That leaved stainless steel. These are expensive, they are reasonably well marked, and they are durable. The only commonly available one in this country is also ungainly, the handle uncomfortable to hold.

E. David, English bread and yeast cookery (1977), 242

Unhurried canal transport certainly was. It was also cheap.

Unhurried canal transport certainly was. It was also cheap. So for that matter was sea transport. In the 1920s, when the railways had largely superseded the canals as a means of internal freight haulage, it was cheaper for American farmers to send wheat 700 miles from St Louis to the port of New Orleans and thence across the Atlantic to Britain than it was for an English farmer to send his wheat by rail freight across three counties from Somerset to London, a distance of about 200 miles.

E. David, English bread and yeast cookery (1977), 16

'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?' demands the Prophet Isaiah

Writing about a subject so ancient and so universal as the baking of bread  it is hard for a modern author to find fresh words to express his views and observations. Over and over again I have found that something I had been struggling for days to put on paper has been said long before, and in rather more graphic words than I could achieve. 'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?' demands the Prophet Isaiah. I doubt if I could ever convey my feelings about shop bread quite so devastatingly.

E. David, English bread and yeast cookery (1977), xvii

Our history, right up to the present, is filled with mass murder, but whenever we speak of killing, it is with eyes lowered and tones of pious horror

"Well, of course we are westerners," he says in another voice,sounding suddenly professional. "Westerners, or at least immigrants who settled here. For us killing is a question of law and morality, or medicine, at any rate a sanctioned or prohibited act that is very precisely delineated within our system of thought. We kill, but in a more complicated way; we kill according to the dictates and authorization of the law... Our history, right up to the present, is filled with mass murder, but whenever we speak of killing, it is with eyes lowered and  tones of pious horror; we cannot do otherwise, it is our prescribed role.

S. Marai, Embers (1942), tr. C.B. Janeworthy (2001), 198

Obedience had to be rooted in the heart: that was what really counted. People had to be certain that everything was in its place

Fifty million people found their security in the feeling that their Emperor [Franz Josef] was in bed before midnight and up again before five, sitting by candlelight at his desk in an American rush-bottomed chair, while everyone else who had pledged their loyalty to him was obeying the customs and the laws. Obedience had to be rooted in the heart: that was what really counted. People had to be certain that everything was in its place.

...

Vienna and the monarchy made up one enormous family of Hungarians, Germans, Moravians, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, and Italians, all of whom secretly understood that the only person who could keep order among this fantastical welter of longings, impulses  and emotions was the Emperor, in his capacity of Sergeant Major and Imperial Majesty, government clerk in sleeve protectors and Grand Seigneur, unmannerly clod and absolute ruler.

S. Marai, Embers (1942), tr. C.B. Janeworthy (2001), 66-8

The London effect could be explained away when the diverse composition of pupils was taken into account

But as with so many quests, the rush to find answers had lost sight of the real story. Economist Simon Burgess delivered a humbling message: the London effect could be explained away when the diverse composition of pupils was taken into account. Burgess argued the headlong rush to find the magic bullets behind the London effect was overlooking the real achievement: the dynamism of London's increasingly diverse population, composed if children whose parents had come from all over the world. ... [and] London is now the stand-out capital of graduate coupling. By 2016, a thrd of London families had two parents with degrees. 

L.E. Major and S. Machin, Social mobility and its enemies (2018), 165-6

Independently educated pupils gaining an extra 0.64 of a grade for each of their GCSE examinations

Private school pupils are on average two years ahead academically of their counterparts in state schools by the age f 176, even taking into account the social background and prior attainment of children. This equates to independently educated pupils gaining an extra 0.64 of a grade for each of their GCSE examinations at age 16.

L.E. Major and S. Machin, Social mobility and its enemies (2018), 141

The unfortunate tendency to revert to the idea of the 'Establishment' as a central feature of British society and government

In the early twenty-first century, the old aristocratic, landed, upper class is a thing of the past. We need to insist on this, given the unfortunate tendency to revert to the idea of the 'Establishment' as a central feature of British society and governance.

M. Savage, Social Class in the 21st Century (2015), 307

An independent education is particularly effective in social reproduction

However, an independent education is particularly effective in social reproduction, because those with senior managerial or traditional professional parents, but with no degree, are as likely to enter the elite, at least among our respondents, as working class, comprehensive-educated, Oxford graduates.

M. Savage, Social Class in the 21st Century (2015), 247

The final self-effacing gesture of one whose lifetime's single aim, as Princess and as Queen, had been to serve the British Throne.

The New Year, 1953, was that of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Mary who drove out in Hyde Park in February to look at the stands being erected along the processional route, let it be known at Buckingham Palace that, should she no longer be there to attend the Coronation, this solemnity must on no account of mourning be postponed. This, we may think, was the final self-effacing gesture of one whose lifetime's single aim, as Princess and as Queen, had been to serve the British Throne.

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 620-1

Aunt Augusta's persistent view of France as a regicide nation

'I rather dread the next days as you can imagine,' she wrote to her aunt just before starting for France, 'it will all be rather difficult and unusual.' Although she did not, of course, share her Aunt Augusta's* persistent view of France as a regicide nation, Queen Mary was very much aware that this was her first state visit as Queen of England to a foreign republic. Some of her mother's greatest friends had been the Princes and Princesses of the exiled house of Orleans, and Queen Mary herself has always known and liked the Empress Eugenie.   

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 483

* Princess Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 1822-1916

They were too often surprised by the simplest manifestations of childishness in children

Yet it cannot be denied that, between them, King George and Queen Mary manged to be rather unsuccessful and somewhat unsympathetic parents. They were too often surprised by the simplest manifestations of childishness in children. Why was their eldest son so 'fidgetty', so 'jumpy' as a tiny boy? 'David was "jumpy" yesterday morning, however he got quieter after being out, what a curious child he is', Princess May wrote when Prince Edward of York [Edward VIII] was scarcely two years old.

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 392

Princess May took a quite professional interest in anarchists

In common with every other member of a European Royal House, Princess May took a quite professional interest in anarchists. Nor was this interest an academic exercise: for she lived to know of several royal assassinations.

...

Princess May, like [Alexandra] the Princess of Wales, was in favour of lynch-law for active anarchists. Prince George considered 'hanging or shooting ... much too good for ... an Anarchist, they all ought to be exterminate like wasps'. 

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 237-8

Russian Grand Dukes made notoriously bad husbands

The old Duchess of Cambridge had begun to derive a genuine delight from her granddaughter's appearance ... and urged that she should marry the Grand Duke Michael Michailovich*, who was in London in the spring of 1886. this suggestion was strongly combated by the Duke of Cambridge** and also by [her father] the Duke of Teck, the latter stating categorically that he would not be a party to 'sacrificing his child', that Russian Grand Dukes made notoriously bad husbands, that Russia was a horrid country and and the Russians were 'our enemies'.

J . Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 166-7

* Grandson of Nicholas I, 1861-1929
** Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge, 1819-1904

Tackling was below him

J.P.R. Williams admits to surprise at [Barry] John's heroics. 'What was great about Barry was that we all knew he was never going to tackle,' he laughs. 'If the opposition had the ball I would move forward behind Barry to tackle. Tackling was below him. But with the pressure we were under with the French even Barry tackled for the first time in his life.'

D. Tossell, Nobody beats us: the inside story of the 1970s Wales rugby team, (2009), 107

I wonder what it's thinking? Nothing at all of course, stupid little thing

Princess May was never maternal. Showing Juliet one of the babies in its cot she once remarked: 'I wonder what it's thinking? Nothing at all of course, stupid little thing.'

....

In a later, earnest and somewhat pathetic conversation the Duke [of Gloucester] related that the biggest compliment his mother ever paid him, and which delighted him, was at her second tour of inspection at Barnwell Manor, after his alterations: she turned to him and said, 'Well, Harry, I would never have thought you could make this house habitable, but you have'. High praise, he indicated.


J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 138, 200

The list of Queen Mary's lack of interest in small children is extensive. These were my favourites.

There in the shelter sat Queen Mary perfectly dressed with her pearls, doing a crossword puzzle

During the first air-raid a message was sent to the Duchess [of Beaufort] that the Queen was in the reinforced shelter and wished her to come down. 'It was a mistake of course, she hadn't sent for me at all. Well there I was in the middle of the night, with my hair all anyhow and in a filthy old dressing gown; and there in the shelter sat Queen Mary perfectly dressed with her pearls, doing a crossword puzzle.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 324

Chances are you'll notice that it's a shallow, narcissistic whine

Books have their own sweet spot. Some arrive too late (the window for The Cather in the Rye is narrow; read it after the age of 16, and chances are you'll notice that it's a shallow, narcissistic whine) and some too soon: I was put off the whole of Russian literature by too early an encounter with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But others have perfect pitch and perfect timing, and recalling your first encounter is like remembering a summer day from your teens. They're the books that lodge in your heart while it's still wide open. and they become the platform the reading that you'll do ever after.

I read enough at that age to have a fairly wide platform, even it 's one whose strength I've not often tested in the intervening years. Nobody wants to discover that they're walking on rotting woodwork.

M. Herron,'Partying down at the Palace', Slightly Foxed 66 (2020), 35

And you say I can't give a blessing because the Archbishop of Liverpool is present?

'You can't expect me  to like all the propaganda about "getting England back for the Faith"? How could I? At Westminster they always go on about their feelings being hurt, but I said to one of them (over the Hungarians at the Albert Hall) don't you suppose I've  got any feelings to hurt? Here I am, in my country, head of my country's church, and you say I can't give a blessing because the Archbishop of Liverpool is present? They saw the point.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 226

It's a tendency of all our royal family. They came from the continent you see.'

[JP-H:] 'I understand there is what is called a High Church and a Low Church. Now the Duchess of Teck was Low Church, and hated anything that "smacked of ritualism" and they all though going to mass in Florence (which they often did to hear the  singing) was mummery.'

[Archbishop Fisher:] 'Do you know Lady Cynthia Colville?'

'I know her well. But she  is very High Church I believe.', A

'That's what I mean. She could tell you, because she isn't Low Church. Now let me see, yes, Queen Mary was what you would call Low Church, it's a tendency of all our royal family. They came from the continent you see.'

....

Take Princess Margaret now, she understands doctrine - knows what it's all about. In fact Princess Margaret is a thoroughly good churchwoman.'

...

He took me out into the passage and promised to read the doctrinal passages in my proofs.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 222-3, 224, 227

A good deal of is time is spent not listening

[Henry, Duke of Gloucester] He is not at all the stupid man he is thought to be. He simply works on a different system to most ordinary people. He has, to begin with, the royal trait of expecting you to know what he is thinking about, and tosses out apparently irrelevant remarks at intervals which you have to catch ad return like longstop in cricket. He treats himself as if he were somebody else, e.g., coming down to Sunday breakfast: 'I'm sorry to say this wind is going to make me very cwoss and irritable today, very cwoss and irritable I'm afraid.' A good deal of is time is spent not listening.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 187-88

The private chapel of a family of ailing megalomaniacs

[The chapel at Sandringham] Not, as the books say, like an ordinary country church in the least, but more like the private chapel of a family of ailing megalomaniacs: the shrine of a clique.

....

To sum up: this is a hideous house with a horrible atmosphere in parts, and in others no atmosphere at all. It was like a visit to a morgue, and everywhere were their [i.e., royal family] faces, painted, drawn or photographed: few pictures not directly related to themselves: ... Almost monastic in its seclusion with the added safety that where a monastery would have religious paintings they lived with nothing higher than paintings of themselves.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 94, 100

She carried a note in her handbag, saying 'I am the Queen of Sweden' in case she was knocked over

Queen Louise [of Sweden*] had nursed in the First World War, where she learned to swear like a trooper. During the Second World War, Sweden being neutral, she had acted as an intermediary between her various royal relations different countries. She was extremely modest, and when she visited London, stayed at the Hyde Park Hotel. She carried a note in her handbag, saying 'I am the Queen of Sweden' in case she was knocked over, which members of her family thought was the surest way to get herself locked up.

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 73
This note by Vickers.

* Lady Louise Alexandra Marie Irene Mountbatten (13 July 1889 – 7 March 1965). Born Princess Louise of Battenberg; Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Gustaf VI Adolf

Foul as it is, Hell is made fouler by the presence of John

A man of forty-eight years, who had presided over the disintegration of the great Angevin Empire and brought the kingdom of England to its knees. A number of chroniclers confidently predicted that the late king would be condemned to Hell. One even added that: 'Foul as it is, Hell is made fouler by the presence of John,'

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 338

He is citing Matthew Paris, I think. This otherwise excellent book is marred by the absence of proper footnotes and instead their irritating replacement by textual references in the back

Knights could wage war with relative impunity

Burdensome though mail, helm and shield may have been, they rendered William and his peers virtually invulnerable. Most sword and arrow strikes could not penetrate through these layers of defence, though lethal blows to the face and eyes were possible, and broken bones (especially from crushing lance attacks) were more common. Only crossbow bolts had the puncturing force to pierce mail and the padding below to reach flesh, and this helps to explain why the papacy sought to ban their use against Christians from 1139 onwards. In the majority of settings, however knights could wage war with relative impunity, and for fully equipped members of this warrior class death in battle was a relatively rare, even shocking, occurrence, 

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 51

More royal courtiers died from drowning than through fighting for the crown

The relatively rudimentary nature of medieval ship and sail design also meant that seafarers routinely found themselves at the mercy of the elements, praying for calm seas and favourable winds. Shipwrecks were alarmingly common - indeed, it has been estimated that, in the mid-twelfth century, more royal courtiers died from drowning than through fighting for the crown - so few made this journey without a degree of trepidation.

T. Asbridge, The greatest knight: the remarkable life of William Marshal, the power behind five English thrones (2015), 35

Modern hymns are awful. I don't know why they bothered.

As with the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, you do not have to be a Christian, or even a believer, to appreciate and be uplifted by hearing a church full of people singing something out of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Modern hymns are awful. I don't know why they bothered. If they felt the words were outdated, and so of limited appeal to the young, it would not have been beyond the wit of an Anglican subcommittee to write new ones to the old tunes. But no, baby went out with the bathwater and we got slush and soup and sentimentality.

S. Hill, Jacob's room is full of books (2017), 207

That is what time does to literature

It is seventy plus years since those days through which we live in the two war [Balkan and Levant] trilogies. Olivia Manning died in 1980. I wonder if it matters how much she wrote out of her own direct experience and how much she created from her imagination - 'made up'.

Does it ever matter? Only at the time, perhaps. A decade, or half a century later, it is all one. The books stand or fall by themselves. That is what time does to literature. And these novels stand. They come up fresh every re-reading.

S. Hill, Jacob's room is full of books (2017), 168

Literature was born when a boy came crying wolf, wolf and there was no wolf behind him

He [Nabokov] has a point, and the point makes me think, but it does not give me the lightening flash of illumination that this does, a page or two later: 'Literature was born, not on the day a boy came crying wolf, wolf out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels: literature was born when a boy came crying wolf, wolf and there was no wolf behind him.'

S. Hill, Jacob's room is full of books (2017), 145
She is citing here Nabokov's Lectures on literature, which I now want to read

A system that either physically eliminated the brightest and most dedicated or forced them to lay waste to the best in themselves

Farideh and Mina were polar opposites when it came to politics - one was a dedicated Marxist and the other a determined monarchist. What they shared was their unconditional hatred for the present regime. When I think of how their talents were wasted, my resentment grows for a system that either physically eliminated the brightest and most dedicated or forced them to lay waste to the best in themselves, transforming them into ardent revolutionaries, like Farideh , or hermits, like Mina and my magician. They withdrew and simmered in their dashed dreams.

A. Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Iran (2003), 204

Their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time

In retrospect, when historical events are gathered up, analyzed and categorized into articles and books, their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time. For me, as for millions of ordinary Iranians, the war came out of nowhere one mild fall morning: unexpected, unwelcome and utterly senseless.

A. Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), 157

Say what you like about civilization, it comes in dashed handy in a crisis like this

Fortunately, the thing did not go beyond looks. Say what you like about civilization, it comes in dashed handy in a crisis like this. It may be a purely artificial code that keeps a father from hoofing his daughter's kisser when there are fellow guests at a house but at that moment I felt I could do with all the purely artificial codes that were going.

P.G. Wodehouse, Thank you, Jeeves (1934), 61

There are such things, I would have you remember, Voules, as strong letters to The Times

'Voules,' I was preparing to say, 'enough is enough. This police persecution must stop. It is monstrous and uncalled-for. We are not in Russia, Voules. There are such things, I would have you remember, Voules, as strong letters to The Times.' 

P.G. Wodehouse, Thank you, Jeeves (1934), 117

Asking for a martini today is merely a socially acceptable way of asking for a bottle of gin

You have to work hard to get away from the fact that asking for a martini today is merely a socially acceptable way of asking for a bottle of gin - hold the brown paper bag - and could it come direct from the freezer, rather than its hiding place in the corner of the wardrobe, please? And drinking virtually neat gin is an act that tends to be frowned upon otherwise in most middle-class circles. 

V. Moore, How to drink (2009), 284

We have a very big sharp knife

The Poire William tasted so precisely of the fruit it was made from you could almost feel the sweetness and textured scrape of the coarse pear flesh dragging across your tongue, so that it was a surprise to find only liquid in your mouth. The Goutte de Reine Claude Doree Passerillee (greengage) also yielded an incredible clarity of flavour. 'We take all the stones out of the fruit by hand,' explained the producer when I commented on this. 'All 300,000 of them. We do everything by hand so as to avoid bitter or dirty tastes. The quince are the toughest to deal with because they are very hard, but we have a very big sharp knife.'

V. Moore, How to drink (2009), 200

No, sir, those are the wrong type of glasses

Nonetheless I reserve great respect for sticklers like the head waiter at the Taj Mahal in Mumbai, who refused to let standards slip during the terrorist siege in November 2008. As one guest-hostage who had been holed up in the restaurant while explosions shook the building later reported. 'Come 5 a.m. we were confident the police were going to get us out, so I marched over to the bar and found a bottle of vintage Cristal, opened it and began pouring. Then the head waiter came rushing across and said, "No, no, you can't do that!" And I said, "Well, we're going to!" and he said, "No, sir, those are the wrong type of glasses." ' Quite so.

V. Moore, How to drink (2009), 48

Most Queen fans didn’t seem to know or care that their favourite rock star was a homosexual Parsi Indian

All these years later, it isn’t difficult to see what the young George Michael might have seen in Freddie Mercury. Even if George had yet to untangle his own sexuality, he would have seen in Freddie plenty to help him map his own route to pop stardom. Here was a singer in a band who had so totally detached his identity from his background that even most Queen fans didn’t seem to know or care that their favourite rock star was a homosexual Parsi Indian whose birth certificate had him down as Farrokh Bulsara. By the force of his personality and his songs, Freddie Mercury seemed to suspend all speculation concerning his background and sexuality. You could be forgiven for failing to spot the signs if you just listened to the records, but the videos made it clearer. 

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 7,949

It was like a medley of best bits from standards that had somehow eluded our ears prior to this point

Even without seeing what they looked like, it seemed immediately shocking to me that, in 1982, you could have a hit as big as that with a record that sounded like that, with violins and mandolins at its centre. But then, how could it have been anything other than a hit? Everything on ‘Come On Eileen’ was a hook. It was like a medley of best bits from standards that had somehow eluded our ears prior to this point. Even the intro gave you twice as much as you were expecting, with one hook, played mostly on violins, in the first twenty seconds, giving way to a second more urgent earworm which introduced the piano and mandolins. 

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 7,323

They talked about innovation and originality, as though these qualities were determinants of listenability

People who remembered them from before seemed more enthused about the old stuff than their current run of singles. They talked about innovation and originality, as though these qualities were determinants of listenability. About a year later, I’d finally get to see and hear what it was about early Roxy Music that got people excited. As the closing credits of Mike Read’s Pop Quiz rolled, Roxy Music’s Top of the Pops performance of ‘Virginia Plain’ revealed a confusion of androgynous aliens marauding into uncharted territory on their sequinned sonic steamroller. Bryan Ferry’s hair was longer and his eyelids were brushed with something shiny. He wore the collar of his black top up and his pointy shoulders gave him a camp, vampiric air – a hypercaffeinated younger brother to the casually coutured ghost who fronted Roxy Mk 2: Heathcliff dressed by Antony Price.

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 3,849

The opening line is the giveaway. I don’t wanna talk

The speed with which ABBA released ‘The Winner Takes It All’ was telling – just seven weeks between conception and release – suggesting that everything to do with the song had been part of a single sustained act of catharsis. And nowhere was that more apparent than in the lyrics themselves.

The opening line is the giveaway. I don’t wanna talk

When a song begins with those four words, you know the protagonist is going to do quite a lot of talking. About things we’ve gone through And now we know what she’s going to talk about. Even at the age of eleven, listening to the song for the first time in the car with my dad, I can dimly recall a sense that things were about to get messy.

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 3,698

A park full of ex-punks spontaneously started dancing to the ABBA song

In 1997, when the Sex Pistols marked the twentieth anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks with a reunion show in Finsbury Park, they decided to walk on stage to ‘Dancing Queen’, the idea being that the song would come to an abrupt halt when the Pistols appeared, as if to remind people about the bland MOR dreck they blew away on their arrival. The problem was that, twenty years on, all the battle lines had long been erased. A park full of ex-punks spontaneously started dancing to the ABBA song.

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 2,227

Sadness is soaked into the fibre of every Greek song that isn’t trying to sound like an American or British song

Sadness is soaked into the fibre of every Greek song that isn’t trying to sound like an American or British song. Four centuries of Ottoman rule prior to the twentieth century would be enough to see to that, although we Greeks hardly needed any encouragement. Even at the peak of Greek civilisation 2,500 years ago, when things were going pretty well for us, we still made time to invent Greek tragedy.

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 889

When I say they don’t write children’s television music like they used to, I mean that they literally don’t

When I say they don’t write children’s television music like they used to, I mean that they literally don’t. The songs we were exposed to were a marriage of convenience between, on the one hand, avant-garde library musicians, left-leaning folk enthusiasts and experimentally-minded classical musicians, and on the other, the commissioning editors who enlisted their services.

....

Even if Freddie Philips – who believed that children should be raised on a diet of Boulez and Stravinsky – reined in his avant-garde instincts for his Trumpton and Camberwick Green music, others didn’t feel the need to try. Vernon Elliott’s music for The Clangers catapulted me to worlds which depicted outer space as a place where tiny curiosities happened against a backdrop of vast emptiness. Come to think of it, that wasn’t so different to the brief Elliott set himself in evoking rural Wales for his music in Ivor the Engine.

P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020), kindle loc. 509 and 644

Whole Streets seem’d to be desolated, and not to be shut up only, but to be emptied of their Inhabitants

It seem’d enough that all the Remedies of that Kind had been used till they were found fruitless, and that the Plague spread itself with an irresistible Fury, so that, as the Fire the succeeding Year, spread itself and burnt with such Violence, that the Citizens in Despair, gave over their Endeavours to extinguish it, so in the Plague, it came at last to such Violence that the People sat still looking at one another and seem’d quite abandon’d to Despair; whole Streets seem’d to be desolated, and not to be shut up only, but to be emptied of their Inhabitants; Doors were left open, Windows stood shattering with the Wind in empty Houses, for want of People to shut them: In a Word, People began to give up themselves to their Fears, and to think that all regulations and Methods were in vain, and that there was nothing to be hoped for, but an universal Desolation;

D. Defoe, A journal of the plague year (1722), 152

Once again, she had traveled thousands of miles, crossed oceans and continents, only to find herself back at the beginning

But here there was only sky, and a stillness made audible by the brittle grass. Emptiness was so perfect all around me that I [Rose Wilder Lane] felt a part of it, empty myself; there was a moment in which I was nothing at all—almost nothing at all. The only thing left in me was Albania. I said, I want to go back to Albania. She did not appear to recognize it, but her description matched, detail for detail, another high plain under a vast sky, another prairie covered with brittle grass, far to the west. Once again, she had traveled thousands of miles, crossed oceans and continents, only to find herself back at the beginning.

C. Fraser, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (2016), 278

Fraser's biography of Ingalls Wilder is in large part a double biography of her daughter also. Those parts are simultaneously frustrating and achingly sad.

You have to pretend that individual women were more important than they were

“Often, if you want to write about women in history,” the novelist Hilary Mantel has said, “you have to distort history to do it, or substitute fantasy for facts; you have to pretend that individual women were more important than they were or that we know more about them than we do.” But when it comes to Wilder, we don’t have to pretend. 

...

That is always a problem, in writing about poor people. The powerful, the rich and influential, tend to have a healthy sense of their self-importance. They keep things: letters, portraits, and key documents, such as the farm record of Thomas Jefferson, which preserved the number and identity of his slaves. No matter how far they may travel, people of high status and position are likely to be rooted by their very wealth, protecting fragile ephemera in a manse or great home. They have a Mount Vernon, a Monticello, a Montpelier. But the Ingallses were not people of power or wealth. Generation after generation, they traveled light, leaving things behind.

C. Fraser, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (2016), 5 and 28

Nobody has ulcers. I have time to work on my monograph about Balzac

The individualistic, artisanal quality of the French baffled the men Paul called the “Marshall Plan hustlers” from the U.S.A. When American experts began making “helpful” suggestions about how the French could “increase productivity and profits,” the average Frenchman would shrug, as if to say: “These notions of yours are all very fascinating, no doubt, but we have a nice little business here just as it is. Everybody makes a decent living. Nobody has ulcers. I have time to work on my monograph about Balzac, and my foreman enjoys his espaliered pear trees. I think, as a matter of fact, we do not wish to make these changes that you suggest.”

J. Child, My life in France (2006), loc. 1,441

I am for the Established Church. ... And if you can get your damned religion established, I'll be for that too!

Edward Thurlow, the crusty Lord Chancellor under George III, thus addressed himself to a deputation of Nonconformists:

I'm against you, by God. I am for the Established Church, damme! Not that I have any more regard for the Established Church than for any other church , but because it is established. And if you can get your damned religion established, I'll be for that too!

The Reverend Sydney Smith showed the same spirit. On his deathbed he complained of being so weak that 'I verily believe, if the knife were put into my hand, I should not have the strength or energy enough to stick it into a Dissenter.'

C. Elliott, 'Great gossips', Slightly Foxed 64 (2019), 75

 

Strangely, for a work of fiction, it has explanatory footnotes

If you'd like a taster of Fanny [Craddock]'s novels, I recommend The Lormes of Castle Rising (1975), the first of her grand country-house saga, larded with lashings of below-stairs goings-on - all very Downton. And strangely, for a work of fiction, it has explanatory footnotes, in case you don't know your Rognons en Brochette from your Mousseline de Soie. It's as though Fanny, as a novelist, wasn't sure whether she wanted to be upstairs huntin', shootin' and eatin', or in the kitchen directing ops. 

L. Graham, 'The Fanny factor', Slightly Foxed 64 (2019), 35

What the country is missing is old-fashioned followers

There are, of course, just as many leaders as there have always been. What the country is missing is old-fashioned followers. The generations that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century lost trust in every vestige of hierarchical authority, from the edicts of the Catholic bishops to the degrees of the Freemasons to the stature of federal representatives. There haven't been any new LBJs because the whole notion of leadership has changed - and the whole shape of democracy is changing

B. Bishop, The big sort (2008), 298-9

Church attendance in all industrialized societies is the best predictor of right-leaning political ideology

As with the decline in trust, however, the alignment of right-leaning political parties with churchgoing wasn't something made only in America. It happened everywhere. The most religious people in every industrialized country have come to support the party of the right. It seemed to come as a surprise to Americans after the 2000 election that those who attended church once a week were overwhelmingly Republican. But there wasn't anything unusual about that relationship. A survey of thirty-two countries in the late 1990s found that seven out of ten of those of who attended church once a week voted for the political party on the right. In fact, church attendance in all industrialized societies is the best predictor of right-leaning political ideology.

B. Bishop, The big sort (2008), 127

Behind it all, he is likably vacuous, someone who has decided to become the Plutarchian hero in the same way that others become bankers

Lafayette is the true opposite of Talleyrand. They are born and die within a few years of each other, both have illustrious ancestors, both are involved in everything. Lafayette, convinced from the very start he is moving with the times, is especially eager every now and again to strike historic poses, and in the meantime to survive. He has an unshakeable capacity not to notice. Talleyrand also moves with the times, follows the trends, changes his shirts and his allegiances.

...

It is difficult to rage at Lafayette. Behind it all, he is likably vacuous, someone who has decided to become the Plutarchian hero in the same way that others become bankers. And he has also chosen it because it is an occasional occupation that allows him plenty of spare time. 

R. Calasso, The ruins of Kasch (1983), tr. R. Dixon (2018), 26-27

They become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it

The predilection of Europeans for Indian ideas went beyond the co-opting of knowledge. Most remarkably of all is that, when captured on the northern frontier of what was to become Maine, fr instance, the English preferred the Indian way if living .... Benjamin Franklin, fir one, was quite clear about this, writing in 1753:

when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho' ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail them to stay among the English, yet in a short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good opportunity of escaping again into the woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.

J.H.C. King, Blood and Land: the story of native North America (2016), 183

The most potent revolutionary threat the nineteenth century had yet seen

The whole disastrous story of the National Guard during the siege was a shining example of half-measures. In response to popular pressures, the Government had raised 400,000 Gardes; but, doubtful of their reliability (both military and political), it had trained and armed them insufficiently to be of any combat value - yet just enough to constitute the most potent revolutionary threat the nineteenth century had yet seen.

A. Horne, The terrible year: the Paris commune, 1871 (1971), 59

The views of the rest of the country had never been considered for a moment

At the same time, as in the case of past revolutions, France was now ruled by a Government formed by Parisians, and for Parisians. The views of the rest of the country had never been considered for a moment.

A. Horne, The terrible year: the Paris commune, 1871 (1971), 11

The execution of a king was a greater sin than the Crucifixion, since Christ had not actually been anointed

Some Jacobites believed that King James II should have been canonised like St James because of his devout Catholic faith. Others believed that King Charles should also be canonised as 'the execution of a king was a greater sin than the Crucifixion, since Christ had not actually been anointed, and that he was simply the uncrowned King of the Jews'.

R. Pound, 'A shrine to the Stuart dynasty: Lord Burlington and Jacobite symbolism at Chiswick House', Royal Stuart Journal 9 (2018), 34

The fact that dutiful, righteous, Jacobites kept on failing to overthrow selfish, evil Whigs was thus an implicit paradox within the mental world of Jacobitism

The fact that dutiful, righteous, Jacobites kept on failing to overthrow selfish, evil Whigs was thus an implicit paradox within the mental world of Jacobitism. If they could not somehow resolve it they were liable to doubt God's blessing upon their cause. And without his blessing their opposition to the status quo in the British Isles was nothing more than an egregious sin.

D. Szechi, 'The long shadow of 1715. The great Jacobite rebellion in Scots Jacobite politics and memory - a preliminary analysis', Royal Stuart Journal 7 (2016), 24

They inflicted their mid-life crises on the nation

He [Ernest Maples] was among that dangerous generation of public servants who found themselves middle aged at the time of the 'youthquake'. They wanted to join in. If they'd simply bought fast cars or had sex with much younger women (Maples did both), the bad effects might have been confined to their families, but they inflicted their mid-life crises on the nation. If they inherited an old house they would purge it of such grotesqueries as high ceilings or fireplaces. If they were town planners they instigated 'comprehensive redevelopments', involving the building of car parks. If they were railwaymen, they thought Euston was beautiful, and they closed railway lines,

A. Martin, Night trains: the rise and fall of the sleeper (2017), 223

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