Later, when she understood that it was the last time they would all be together, she wished she had paid more attention.
It was war itself that was evil, not men.
It was just as well the baby was strapped into his high chair, because every so often he would suddenly fling out his arms and legs and try to launch himself into the air like a suicidal starfish.
If people believed in eternal damnation they might not be seizing the day quite so much.
I really such a terrible mother?’ she asked Bertie. ‘Why the past tense?’ Bertie said. Sow
He loved his wife and daughter. It was perhaps a stalwart affection rather than a magnificent obsession, but nonetheless he didn't doubt that if called upon to do so he would sacrifice his own life in...
He likes women, children, dogs, really what can you fault?’ Pamela wrote. ‘It’s just a shame he’s a dictator with no respect for the law or common humanity.
He has been reconciled to death during the war and then suddenly the war was over and there was a next day and a next day and a next day. Part of him never adjusted to having a future.
And then. Astonishing. Again. As she was skipping up the back stairs on her way to the attic bedroom to fetch something, something innocent - a book, a handkerchief, afterwards she would never remembe...
And I can't cry, I don't even want to cry. My tears would never do justice to this loss.
After that Sylvie made sure they all went to the swimming baths in town and took lessons, from an ex-major in the Boer War who barked orders at them until they were too frightened to sink.
A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen
A 'career woman,' Sylvie said, as if the two words had no place in the same sentence. A spinster, she added, contemplating the word. Ursula wondered why her mother was working so hard to rile her. Per...
The grain had entered the shell (Sylvie’s own metaphoric stance) and the pearl that would be Edward Beresford Todd began to grow until he was revealed into the sunshine that came before the Great War...
Not so much an agent provocateur as an agent passif, if such a thing could be said to exist. (Sometimes, Perry said, saying nothing can be your strongest weapon.)
Misquote Edmund Burke rather than Milton. All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good women to do nothing.
Genuine sentiment rather than just nostalgia, always a bit of a cheap emotion
Eye for an eye, Mac said at the squadron reunion. Until everyone was blind, Teddy wondered?)
Common language was a wonderful idea, but utterly utopian. All good ideas were, she said sadly.
You were very brave,’ Nancy said, with the same encouraging indifference