They didn’t mean that the sins a parent might commit would be visited on their offspring. The words actually meant that the mistakes a parent made while they were bringing up their children would be v...
The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.’ George Santayana 1863-1952 ‘There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.’ Isaiah 48:22
She already looked dead and Eileen knew that it couldn’t be long before she went. But even though she knew it would be a happy release for her mother, the thought of her never being there ever again w...
Of all the griefs that harass the distress’d Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the gen’rous heart, Than when a blockhead’s insult points the dart – Samuel Johnson, 1...
Look after the pennies, and the pounds always looked after themselves.
Life at its longest is short, make the most of it while you still can.’ How true that was.
It was like the old riddle: How did the man get out of the room with no windows and no doors? Well, the answer was: The same way he got in there.
How they had the nerve to sanction other countries about their penal laws when they treated their own as guilty before there was even a trial, he did not know. Innocent till proven guilty?
Deep in my soul that tender secret dwells, Lonely and lost to light for evermore, Save when to thine my heart responsive swells, Then trembles into silence as before. ‘The Corsair’, Lord Byron (1788–1...
Always fighting, arguing, and mouthing off to teachers and other pupils alike. But it was never her fault, it was always someone else’s fault.
Use what you’ve got. Always find a use for what you’ve got. Never promise what you can’t deliver, and always do a deal with a smile and a friendly word if possible. That advice had served him in good...
You looked after your child, no matter who had fathered it, and no matter how much you might hate them deep down inside. A child was there for the duration of your life and, if you were really lucky,...
Tardiness was the greatest insult of them all; arrangements were made to suit those concerned – it was the height of rudeness to overlook other people’s needs.
Now, as a wage earner, she had gained a certain grudging respect, but it had been a long time coming. At fifteen, she understood her life better than people three times her age; she needed to keep the...
My sister and my sister’s child, Myself and children three.’ – William Cowper, 1731-1800 With affection beaming in one eye and calculation shining out of the other. – Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens...
It was family, blood, kin. It was what made the world go round and people strive to better themselves. At the end of the day, family was all you had.
It was a bastard, life. It had the knack of throwing you a curve every now and then to keep you interested. To give you a reason to keep going. Then, just as you thought you had cracked it, you took d...
In trouble to be troubled is to have your trouble doubled.’ – The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe, c. 1659-1661
Imelda believed in God because she felt that there had to be something else, something after all this, and also because anyone who was still being worshipped and adored after all that time had to have...
I hope to meet many of you at my signings, and I look forward to saying hello to you all. Take care and God bless, Martina x