The Japanese conquest of Manchuria and their full-scale invasion of China in 1937 led to clashes on the badly mapped Soviet-Manchurian frontier. Some… - Paul Johnson

Augustine was struck by the fact, when they first met, that Ambrose read to himself, a habit unknown to the classical world: 'His eyes scanned the page, and his mind penetrated its meaning, but his voice and tongue were silent.' There were other impressive things about Ambrose.

He also decided to take more notice of the “de-crypts,” based upon the Enigma code-breaking system, that Churchill, taking a great but calculated risk, began to feed him from 1942. Stalin at first dismissed them as “one of Churchill’s tricks,” but he used them at Stalingrad and found them reliable and of great value.

Like Rousseau, he loved humanity in general but was often cruel to human beings in particular.