“It takes a while for the film, elegiacally shot in the depressed streets of Dublin and stuffed with local slang, to live up to this pitch.”

“Momus informs us, elegiacally, that Ettore Sottsass has died.”

“Mr Marozzi has traced in person much of Temur's relentless campaign trail, and he elegiacally shows us how far Samarkand and Bukhara, once the most glorious cities in Asia, have descended.”