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“... peasant who, having stumbled on political power, is unsure how to wield it. Reporting on Michael Portillo’s visit as defence minister to Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia in 1996, Anne Applebaum (coincidentally, for the Evening Standard) has a good old chuckle: Up and down the red carpets he walks, Her Majesty’s aircraft just behind ...”

“... to distort major figures helps her discriminate among lesser planets. Her inclusion of Robert Hayden, for example, is bold and welcome. Moreover, her promise to present writers ‘whole’ has more chance of being fulfilled with subsidiary figures. When Eliot judged anthologies less just to major than minor poets, he was, as often, lending his authority ...”

“... more great batsmen playing than at any other time in the sport’s history (Lara, Tendulkar, Hayden, Ponting, Gilchrist), they all find that an average of 60 runs per innings is the absolute limit of possible achievement. Whenever a player’s average rises above this magic number, they get vertigo and fall back. Bradman was not just 5, 10 or 20 per cent ...”