The moniker can become an albatross that can suck the life out of an otherwise splendid career.

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Once again, back to the Fifth Splendid Truth: you can build a happy life only on the foundation of your own nature.

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So are two Cambodian investments by Raffles's present owners: Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh and Grand Hotel Angkor in Siem Reap, a splendid colonial relic which will have a new life as a luxury hotel for visitors to the sublime temples of Angkor Wat.

ECONOMIST: Pukkah hotels

That was splendid for the purchasers, but rather unwise of the life companies, which had no way of hedging their liabilities with fixed-interest assets with a similarly high yield.

ECONOMIST: Not all it should be

For most of the 1980s and early 1990s, Britain's splendid isolation was not so much a policy failure as a permanent condition of life in Europe.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne