This was love. It didn't come free, you paid in pain. Your own. But then nobody ever said love was easy. Well, they did, but they were idiots.
They had been too taken up with each other, grasshoppers enjoying the summer, rather than ants preparing for the winter.
There were doorways between this world and the next, she said, but only certain people could pass through them.
The dead were legion and the gods had their own secret agenda.
The Knights’ Code, which he had learned by heart from Scouting for Boys, a book he frequently turned to in times of uncertainty, even now in his self-exile from the movement, demanded that Chivalry re...
That was the problem with time travel, of course (apart from the impossibility) - one would always be a Cassandra, spreading doom with one's foreknowledge of events
Sylvie's children really only came into focus for her when in isolation. Together, they were an unwieldy flock, singly they had character.
Sylvie was surprised by the rabid patriotism of the women on the platform, surely war should make pacifists of all women?
Sometimes it takes just one good man, Ursula said to him during the war. Neither of them could think of an example from history, except the Buddha perhaps, Ursula offered. I’m not convinced by the rea...
She doesn't believe in dogs, Bridget said. Dogs are hardly an article of faith, Sylvie said.
She could have started up a branch library (or a spectacular house fire)
Scars heal, Sylvie said. Even the worst ones.
Sacrifice, by its nature, was predicated on giving, not receiving.
Really she was just like everyone else, she wanted to love someone. Even better if they loved you in return. She was considering getting a cat. She didn’t really like cats though. That might be a bit...
Popular versurs literary—a false divide?
Personally, I don’t think it right to make up things about real people—although I suppose there’s an argument for saying that once you’re dead you’re not real any more. But then we have to define what...
One could lose everything in the blink of an eye, the slip of a foot. One must avoid dark thoughts at all costs.
Olivia was her only beautiful child. Julia, with her dark curls and snub nose, was pretty but her character wasn't, Sylvia --- poor Sylvia, what could you say? And Amelia was somehow ...bland, but Oli...
Of course, I don’t believe in God,’ Dr Kellet said. ‘But I believe in heaven. One has to,
Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on.