Often the best way to explain a figure of speech is to give an example. Hypallage, enallage, hysteron proteron, antanaclasis.

The figure known as "litotes" -- the Englishman's understatement -- has received what may come to be regarded as its classic formulation.

Here's the background. In 2009 a driver, Imran Husain, driving at 120 mph, and otherwise engaged in what was demurely described as performing a "sex act upon himself," smashed into a Fiat Punto, killing James Proctor and his son.

Here is the story: 

Hussain pleaded guilty to the charges

A drink-driver who killed a father and son in a motorway crash was performing a sex act on himself minutes before the collision, a court heard.

Imran Hussain was driving at speeds of up to 120mph minutes before he ploughed into the back of a Fiat Punto carrying the Proctor family, from Wakefield.

Gary Proctor, 47, and son James, 16, died in the smash on the M62 motorway near Rochdale, on 3 August.

Hussain, of Bradford, was jailed for eight years at Manchester Crown Court.

Death threat

The 32-year-old, of Como Avenue, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of driving with excess alcohol at a previous hearing.

The court heard that Hussain's erect penis was exposed when motorists came to his aid after the crash.

Judge Andrew Blake told him: "At the least it must have been a symptom you were not giving your full attention to driving."

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Judge Andrew Black, master of British understatement, docteur ès lettres et litotes.