Despite the showbusiness cliche of never working with children or animals, there is a long history of politicians risking everything to be photographed with beastly creatures.
Sean O'Faolain considered no one spared: "We see the prostitute, the beastly peasant, the timid bourgeois, the civil servant – his favourite subjects – in an unpitying light that exposes their wrinkled faces, their painted gums, their frayed cuffs, their shifty eyes, their hearts that have dried like peas".
My new novel, Style, has turned out to be rather more topical than I had planned – which sometimes is the way with books (although the beastly reverse can also be true).
In contrast to Blair – who denounced "feral beasts" in the press speech two years after he fought his last election and named only the not very beastly Independent – Baldwin spoke two nights before a vital byelection.
Dortmund faltered physically, lost a key player – Mats Hummels, strained ligaments, out for three weeks – to injury and then gifted Bayern two goals via a couple of beastly individual mistakes.
"I PROPOSE, if and when found, to take him by his beastly neck, shake him till he froths, and pull him inside out and make him swallow himself".
That message, spelled out in a statement by Mr Castaño, is to stop being beastly to the paramilitaries and to grant his organisation, the United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (AUC), the same political status as its leftist opponents.Those are difficult demands for Mr Pastrana.
George Bush's first few months in office have already provoked a barrage of articles about America's beastly ways, particularly in Europe.
In France just 2.5m experiments were conducted in 2010 and the figure has been stable for many years.In this section Chancing it Trouble turning up the heat The fight moves on Skin-deep truths about beauty Right but wrong-headed On the defensive Ministers v mandarins A beastly business ReprintsTwo aspects of European legislation may push the figure higher still.
Pubs, clubs and drunken Brits Beastly Tony pushes his luck ReprintsLand Rover's problems are at least confined to the factories, especially Solihull.
Beasts are not actually all that beastly, and so we need not be either.
