Ms Merriman weaves these strands together skilfully, offering enough context to explain her characters' actions without distracting from their adventures.
Mr Dodge skilfully outlines the prime minister's unexpected rise to pre-eminence as he outfoxed and overcame opponents, including the Americans, at every turn.
Calm and phlegmatic, with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas.
The largest bee-ranches have about a thousand hives, and are carefully and skilfully managed, every scientific appliance of merit being brought into use.
The economy of many islands like Tonga depends on tourism, farming or fishing, and on handicrafts. skilfully making traditional objects like jewellery, textiles or pottery by hand.
Richard Overy, a British historian of the second world war, has now written a sixth, which skilfully draws together nearly 100 years of scientific and historical scholarship.
It explains why so many intelligent people, who deal skilfully with matters of fact, make such a mess of it when they deal with their fellow creatures.