Angela Thirkell > Quotes

“I have been very, very happy. Mamma always said that even if there wasn't any happiness one must try to be happy without it.”
― Angela Thirkell, Love Among the Ruins

“I suppose everybody has a mental picture of the days of the week, some seeing them as a circle, some as an endless line, and others again, for all I know, as triangles and cubes. Mine is a wavy line proceeding to infinity, dipping to Wednesday which is the colour of old silver dark with polishing and rising again to a pale gold Sunday. This day has a feeling in my picture of warmth and light breezes and sunshine and afternoons that stretch to infinity and mornings full of far-off bells.”
― Angela Thirkell, Three Houses

“At this moment the headmaster found Master Wesendonck's tall pile of books slipping from his grasp. He juggled frantically with them for a moment and then, to the infinite joy of the boarders and day boys, they crashed to the ground in all directions. A bevy of form masters rushed forward to the rescue. Master Wesendonck, realising with immense presence of mind that his natural enemies were for once in their proper place, grovelling on the floor, stood still and did nothing.”
― Angela Thirkell, High Rising

“People who say Jane or talk about Janeites revolt me. The sort that can walk with kings and not lose that common touch. 'Miss Austen to you' is what I feel inclined to say.”
― Angela Thirkell, August Folly

“The historical sequence is quite simple, really," she continued, warming to her theme. "The first catastrophe was the Reformation. The Reformation led to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution created the British Empire. The British Empire necessitated the Public Schools. The Public Schools engendered the Class System. The Class System made Socialism inevitable. And Socialism - which by bad luck arrived just as it couldn't be afforded - brought about the collapse of the economy."
"I shall vote Liberal next time," said Angela virtuously.”
― Angela Thirkell, High Rising

“Tell Aunt Louise to boil her head," said Robin.”
― Angela Thirkell, August Folly

“Good,’ said Mr Carton. ‘Why children, a loathsome breed who should be kept under hatches or in monasteries till they have acquired some rudiments of manners and consideration for others, should be encouraged to think themselves of importance now, I do not know. The English as a race have always been sentimental about dogs, and draught horses in Italy where most of them have never been, but this wave of sentiment about children is a new and revolting outburst.”
― Angela Thirkell, The Headmistress

“There are some names that one can't even say in a normal voice because they lay open some nerve. I was frightfully in love with a woman once. Her name was Susan and she came from Norwich and she lived with her husband in Ovington Square. I fell out of love with her, and I haven't seen her or heard of her for years, but if I read or hear the words Susan, or Norwich, or Ovington, I go all queer.”
― Angela Thirkell, O, These Men, These Men

“Now that," said Mrs. Morland, up in arms for seeing things straight, "is just rubbish. There isn't any good or bad taste about what books you read: it's what you like or don't like.”
― Angela Thirkell, Love at All Ages

“Perhaps as one gets older one takes one's joys altruistically,"said John, in turn thinking aloud. "I must say though I sometimes wish I could get it selfishly, just for myself, as Gay used to give me, when I was young."

Lady Emily found nothing to say. John's last words fell dead on her heart. It terrified her that he could speak of his youth as a perished thing.”
― Angela Thirkell, Wild Strawberries

“Later in the week Mr Knox's Annie bicycled over to see Stoker and ask her to waive the lien which she had on her sister's services, as they would be required for the weekend.
'She's having dinner at half-past eight on Saturday,' said Annie, when seated with her sister and Stoker in the warm kitchen... Stoker was only too delighted to get a spy into the enemy's camp, and the kitchen had a long, delightful conversation about 'Madam', as Annie called Miss Grey, with a very poor imitation of her accent.”
― Angela Thirkell, High Rising

“and Bill broke a cheerful silence for the first time to say he wished he hadn’t lost his ocarina with his kit, because he had never had a better one.”
― Angela Thirkell, Cheerfulness Breaks In

“It need hardly be said that the qualities which filled Martin with the pangs of hero-worship were not altogether those which David’s parents would have most desired. If he had had to earn his living, David would have been a serious problem. But, owing to the ill-judged partiality of an aunt, he had been independent for some years. So he lived in town and had hankerings for the stage and the cinema and broadcasting, and every now and then his looks and his easy manners and his independent income landed him in a job, though not for long. And, as Martin had dimly surmised, heaps of girls had been in love with him. When the Leslies wished that David would settle down to a job and stick to it, they never failed to remind each other that the house would not be the same if David were not there so often.”
― Angela Thirkell, Wild Strawberries

“I'm sorry to disturb you, madam,' said Nurse, 'but I thought I'd better speak to you. It's about Miss Delia's knickers' she continued, after a glance at the Vicar and a rapid decision that his cloth protected him. 'She really hasn't a pair fit to wear...”
― Angela Thirkell, The Brandons

“How is Mrs. Rivers doing?' asked the agent, a very tall and large man, well-dressed, bald and depressing, with a manner of gliding into his office from a side door without perceptibly moving his feet which had struck terror into many young writers and caused them to accept the lowest terms Mr. Hobb could offer.”
― Angela Thirkell

“Like most healthy men he thought that any illness was death”
― Angela Thirkell, Wild Strawberries

“Henry, you mustn’t mind. It is really a kindness to have him.’ ‘Well, I do mind, Emily,’ said Mr Leslie, getting up. ‘Kindness is one thing and your family is another. You treat this house as if it were the Ark, Emily, inviting everyone in.’ ‘At least she doesn’t ask them in couples, sir,’ said David. ‘A female Holt would be appalling.’ ‘That’s enough,’ said his father. ‘If Mr Holt comes into this house, I go out of it.’ He took a cigar from the sideboard and went out, almost slamming the door.”
― Angela Thirkell, Wild Strawberries

“The Admiral had the intense pleasure of welcoming Bill and Tubby again as his guests when they returned from a cheerful violation of Norway’s highly un-neutral waters, with their rescued fellow-seamen; and when Mrs. Birkett heard that Bill had had the ocarina with him on that glorious occasion she felt that she had in no small measure contributed to the victory and the rescue and became quite bloated with pride. Two”
― Angela Thirkell, Cheerfulness Breaks In

“I’m not anything-phil, David,’ said his sister-in-law, ‘but Geoffrey Harvey was most interesting about the Russians the other day at the Middletons. He is with John at the Regional Commissioner’s Office. He says they are wonderful.”
― Angela Thirkell, Marling Hall

“When we are young we all look through our elders, to see what lies beyond. And when we see what is there, we are the elders ourselves.”
― Angela Thirkell, Summer Half

“At first the baby was so transported with wrath, that it shrieked more loudly than before, but after a while nature asserted itself against imbecility and with one great heave and spasm of fury it suddenly became like the jelly smoother than the creamy curd, its vengeful limbs relaxed, and with long shuddering breaths it began to suck its bottle, both hands clutching the beloved object and an angry suspicious eye roving the nursery against the possible approach of milk-thieves.”
― Angela Thirkell, Growing Up

“Doctors!” said Mr. Leslie, wiping the whole of the Royal College of Physicians off the face of the world with this withering remark.”
― Angela Thirkell, Wild Strawberries

“Nice," said Mrs Spender emphatically, "is hardly the word, if you see what I mean. I mean a man who does such wonderful good by his mere influence, though mind you I don't mean like an Indian by simply sitting and thinking of nothing.”
― Angela Thirkell , Growing Up

“Mr. Fanshawe, who like most of his sex would enthusiastically neglect any woman, however charming, to talk to any man, however dull, at once engaged Mr. Tebben in conversation. It”
― Angela Thirkell, August Folly

“Heah,” said the voice, “is a message that has just come in. The motor cruiser Anubis which by earlier reports had trouble off the North African coast has arrived safely at Madeira. Among the passengers are the Bishop of Barchester and Mrs.—” at which point the Dean turned it off. There was a silence, compounded of such mixed elements that we shall not attempt to analyse them. “I must say,” said Mrs. Joram, looking pensively at old Mrs. Brandon’s diamond on her lovely hand, “that after all these years it would be quite uncomfortable not to have someone at the Palace that one can really dislike.”
― Angela Thirkell, Happy Returns

“She then swung out towards the middle of the lake. It has long been obvious to the meanest of our readers – we allude to the one who asked the young lady at the libery for a nice book and now wishes she had got something different, something really nice if you know what I mean – that an author does not invent a lake with a spring under it and bring a band of hooligans out from Barchester at great waste of the country’s petrol to try to crack the ice without intending to make someone fall in.”
― Angela Thirkell, The Headmistress

“Could I speak to you for a moment, madam?' said Nannie to Agnes.

It was at moments of crisis like this that Mary chiefly envied her Aunt Agnes's imperturbable disposition. Most mothers feel a hideous sinking at the heart when these fatal words are pronounced, but Agnes only showed a kindly and inactive interest.

In anyone else Mary might have suspected unusual powers of bluff, hiding trembling knees, a feeling of helpless nausea, flashes of light behind the eyes, storm in the brain, and a general desire to say 'Take double your present wages, but don't tell me what it is you want to speak to me about.'

But Agnes, placidly confident in the perfection of her own family and the unassailable security of her own existence, was only capable of feeling a mild curiosity and barely capable of showing it.”
― Angela Thirkell, Wild Strawberries

“As for the evacuee children all over the county, their loving and starving parents, having had nearly four happy months of freedom, and seeing no reason why their children shouldn’t be lodged, fed, clothed, educated and amused at other people’s expense for ever, saw no reason to do anything more about them and hoped that the same fate would overtake the new baby whom most of them had had or were expecting. So all the hostesses buckled to afresh.”
― Angela Thirkell, Cheerfulness Breaks In

“Much as he loved his many daughters and his two sons, now all married, all with children, he sometimes, and especially at Christmas and during school holidays when his wife’s exuberant grandmotherhood filled the Deanery with children and nurses and odd parents, echoed from his heart the cry, “Oh, for an hour of Herod.”
― Angela Thirkell, Miss Bunting

“It is true that christian-naming is so common as almost to have done away with the use of surnames, especially we regret to say, among men, but among the older generation the formality of title is less easily set aside, as Lydia with unusual perception had noted in the case of Lady Waring. In ordering Philip and Leslie to drop the prefix she had but done what anyone would do to contemporaries, probably thinking, if she did think about it, that she had eased their path. And indeed she would have eased it, or they would quite possibly have dropped into first names by themselves before long, had not each been touched in the heart by the other. To say Philip or Leslie offhand was to each, though they were not consciously aware of it, a faint impropriety, a pulling open of rose-petals which might hurt the rose, a digging up of the plant to see how it was growing.”
― Angela Thirkell, Growing Up