After a brief clerical appointment to a parish in a rural area he went to Madrid, the Spanish capital, in 1927 to study law at university.

For those who work long hours in understaffed offices or factories, home becomes a branch office in which to schedule brief "appointments" with loved ones at home.

After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, he held a brief appointment as Minister of Communications.

After brief appointments in Berlin from 1948 he settled permanently as professor in Hamburg.

In 1951, after a brief appointment at Oxford, she married James Douglas, who soon became a researcher for the Conservative Party.

Romer supported her brief appointment as a state senator and was sworn in himself on January 10, 2007.

Melody probably told you that I had a brief appointment slotted.

A brief appointment after dinner,' she says, 'so as not to tire him.'

This was to be a brief appointment, for Gomme-Duncan was "recalled to the Colours" as a reservist in June 1939.

There was another brief appointment before Dr Mann appeared on the scene.