“When Gordon the Brown, in London in 1997, commissioned a great inquisition or survey of his new realm, the result was the so-called national asset register (NAR), which was immediately dubbed by the boomers of the UK Treasury "the modern Domesday Book".” BookResultsModernLondonRealmsBrownAssetsRegisterSurveysTreasuryInquisitionBoomers Author:James Buchan
“Life without oil, in fact, would be so different that it is frightening to contemplate. We are addicted, and it is no comfortable addiction.” DifferentFactsWould BeComfortableAddictionOilContemplatingFrightening Author:James Buchan
“When William the Conqueror commissioned a great survey of his English realm at Gloucester in 1085, the result was a work so thorough, fair, dispassionate, and wide-ranging that it seemed to the succeeding generations to have come from another world.” WorldResultsGenerationsSucceedFairsWideRealmsAnother WorldSurveysThoroughConquerorDispassionateGloucesterWilliam The Conqueror Author:James Buchan
“To make a love story, you need a couple of young people, but to reflect on the nature of love, you're better off with old ones. That is a fact of life and literature - and of the novel ever since it fell in love with love in the 18th century.” PeopleNeedsFactsStoriesYoungLiteratureNovelCenturyLove YouCoupleLove StoryBetter OffFacts Of Life18th Century Author:James Buchan
“Almost all novels are improved by cutting from the top. On their first pages, authors parade those favourite effects which disgust the impartial reader.” FirstsNovelCuttingEffectsReaderPagesFavouriteDisgustingParades Author:James Buchan
“Bulls don't read. Bears read financial history. As markets fall to bits, the bears dust off the Dutch tulip mania of 1637, the Banque Royale of 1719-20, the railway speculation of the 1840s, the great crash of 1929.” FallBitsBearsFinancialDustCrashSpeculationBullsDutchRailwayMania Author:James Buchan
“Cause and effect, the riddle of all history, is a particular devil in financial history; and never more so than today, where entire classes of security are collapsing not on public exchanges and stock-tickers but because there are no markets to establish prices this side of nothing.” TodayCausesSidesClassEffectsSecurityParticularDevilFinancialCause And EffectRiddle Author:James Buchan
“Ever since the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, the Muslim world has been in slow decline relative to the west. With Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the creeping British annexation of Muslim India, that decline took on a malign aspect.” WorldHas BeensAspectDestructionIndiaWestBritishRelativeDeclineEgyptInvasionBaghdadMuslim WorldMongolsAnnexation Author:James Buchan
“For all their current prestige, Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza or Peshawar as romantics with little chance of more than symbolic victories, however bloody and brutal. That gives both the Middle East and the West a small and distant hope of security.” GivingLittlesStillsChanceMiddleSecurityVictorySuicideWestCurrentsEastDesperateMiddle EastBrutalBloodySymbolicBin LadenPrestigeOsama Bin LadenGazaBombersSuicide Bombers Author:James Buchan
