Mavis Cheek > Quotes

“Flora was in that state where the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak and wishes to go on holiday - and where the flesh in most cases wins hands down with a packed suitcase. It did so now. So she did what many a researcher both great and insignificant does when they are stuck. She yawned while contemplating how to catch the Muse by surprising Her. Almost invariably, the Muse has seen it all before - and also yawns.”
― Mavis Cheek

“Since time immemorial any woman with half a brain has known that in the pursuit of romance she must hide it”
― Mavis Cheek

“And – yes – it is a truth universally acknowledged that if an unexceptional man declares himself to a woman of his fancy, she will immediately start to look on him in a more favourable light and find his unexceptional qualities less of a handicap.”
― Mavis Cheek, Amenable Women

“to take a little lie down with him...”
― Mavis Cheek, Mrs Fytton's Country Life

“Men were like cars – they were absolutely lovely until they went wrong.”
― Mavis Cheek, Amenable Women

“Ian's 'cannot bear' was on a direct par with Son Andrew's statement, during his summer holidays, that he was 'desperate to get a job.'  'Desperate' was used interestingly here.  'Desperate to get a job' comprised lying in bed until about 11.30 and then stumbling about for a bit before embarking on a fruitless amble around the immediate locale with several of his mates, calling into shops on the off-chance and no doubt frightening the proprietors rigid with their gangling six foot clumsiness, their menacing inarticulacy, and their shuffling gait of the young homeless.  'Give us ten pounds Mum, there are no jobs to be had anywhere.' 'Anywhere' in this situation was also an interesting variation on received meaning.  Anywhere, apparently, could also mean 'this small bit of London in which we live'.  Just to be fair, and not to imply that the sororiety was hanging back in the matter of the changing shape of the English language, Daughter Claire's linguistics were also interesting.  To pick one at random - 'it's doing my head in' - could be said of anything from the introduction to the household of cheaper shampoos, to the imposition of a five minute rule for the telephone - both of which were quite likely, in Daughter Claire's head-done-in state, to contrive the failure of all three of her A levels and a permanent place under a blanket outside Woolworths .”
― Mavis Cheek, Mrs Fytton's Country Life

“Authors with a mortgage never get writer’s block. –”
― Mavis Cheek

“It was one thing to invite a married man into your bed – and quite another to invite him to help you with the gardening.”
― Mavis Cheek, Amenable Women