Jack Aubrey is a tremendous tower of strength and you always want to read about him.

One of the virtues of the NHS... it doesn't worry you about money at the moment when you're least capable of doing anything about it.

As a work of art, it reminds me of a long conversation between two drunks

Here was my first lesson on the resolutely maintained untidiness and ill-health of the English upper orders. In baggy evening dress and old before their time, they displayed gapped and tangled teeth in loosely open mouths. Gently shedding dandruff, they lurched across the lawn. When they stood at the bar they looked like Lee Trevino Putting.

Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world.

Arnold Schwarzenegger looks like a brown condom full of walnuts.

In between the Queen and the First Lady, Nancy Reagan, sat Tony Richardson, looking very calm. Later on it emerged that this was because, having not been apprised of the placement until he was about to sit down, he had died of fright. To have expired was to be fortunate.