Matters are made worse by the frequent (and illegal) sales of beer in the park, where vendors stealthily make their way through crowds and behind bleachers, whispering "Heineken, Corona" as if they were selling marijuana.
Now we are seemingly in a political age where decisions on such matters are made for reasons of short-term political expediency – holding an EU referendum, English votes for English laws and possible House of Lords reform are all examples.
Although the situation is divinely engineered, matters are made worse by the tale-telling gabbiness of Phaedra's nurse, the callow misogyny of Hippolytos and the intemperate anger of his late-returning dad, Theseus.
Matters are made worse by the arrival of 60,000 people fleeing Mogadishu.Some of the refugees are gathered in a compound near Sheikh Omar's base, among them Muhammad Hassey, who says he has moved house ten times over the years to escape fighting.
That Trevor allows his characters so much is not only due to the innate generosity for which he is justly worshipped as a writer, but to a new grace again, something further, that marks this book as particular, miraculous; in it old matters are made new, transformed, redeemed.
Matters are made worse by the suggestion that Jones had however casually and indirectly influenced Russell.
