For most of my life I have utterly scorned Brief Encounter.
He was difficult, mercurial, endlessly self-sabotaging and, for a brief time, utterly brilliant.
Yet now the rate of new infections seems to be slowing (the statistics are so unreliable that it is hard to say for sure), and the plague seems less threatening.The same sort of ambiguity about whether the woe is just beginning or petering out, will be mercifully brief or utterly ruinous clouds the economic news too.
Chris Grayling, with long previous form, had his team brief an utterly bogus double whammy of benefit scrounging and EU migrants to the Sunday Times front page: "Brussels is planning to sign a deal with Turkey without Britain's consent that could extend its citizens access to the UK social security system".
On another day, I might write the whole thing off as a mindless diversion, a brief and utterly forgettable distraction.
His speech is brief, taut and utterly heartfelt.
He was a minister utterly on top of his brief, with an extraordinary knowledge of educational research and statistics.
In his brief, restrained, and utterly dignified address this evening Mr Nixon told the American people his decision to leave office was "abhorrent to every instinct in my body," but, he insisted, "I must put the interests of the nation first".
Naipaul, who became Sir Vidia in the 1990 honours list, said in a brief statement: "I am utterly delighted.
She said in a brief statement: "I completely and utterly deny these allegations and can prove they are false beyond any doubt.
