The Channel is a slipper-bath of irony through which we pass these serious Continentals in order not to be infected by their gloom.

One of the good things about Larkin is that he still has you firmly by the hand as you cross the finishing-line, whereas reading Auden is like doing a parachut…

He is interested in the feelings of the squash ball, and of the champagne bottle that launches the ship. In a football match his sympathy is not with either of…

I have no doubt that in heaven the angels will regard the blessed as a necessary evil.

The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient …

Your Englishman, confronted by something abnormal will always pretend that it isn't there. If he can't pretend that, he will look through the object, or round …

On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners.