But since the 2003 invasion, advances that took 50 years to establish are crumbling away.
Old Hollywood was crumbling away, and many independent producers were driving hard bargains with UA.
"Bit by bit," Goody says in Catch a Falling Star, "I was crumbling away".
The roof leaked; the stonework was crumbling away and pollution and dirt had stained the rich tapestry of its surfaces.
At first, there were regular refits and paint jobs; by the time of the new millennium, Marine Court was crumbling away.
The meaning of this foundational and affirming festival seems to be crumbling away, a precious edifice falling to ruin like so many lonely churches.
Although most of the hospitals Mr. Payne visited were still marginally functional, others were crumbling away or abandoned, leaving evidence of vanished lives: cardboard boxes of clinical records, wardrobes of straitjackets, stored suitcases.
After their deaths in 2004 and 2005, Matthew Pritchard, Christie's grandson, donated the house and all its contents to the National Trust but, as the house itself was crumbling away, it needed hefty restoration work before it could be opened.
But that's crumbled away, everybody doesn't have to speak the same way now, pretend to come from the same background or gone to the same kind of school".
