Roz Watkins > Quotes

“Most of the villages in this area were picture-perfect tourist honeypots of stone cottages and tea rooms. But just a few miles away you'd come upon a remote  settlement full of rusting machinery, bags of cement, feral collies, and farmers who'd stare blankly at you as if they'd never previously encountered someone from outside Derbyshire.”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice

“I let out a slightly crazy laugh. 'Why not?' I was selfish and dishonest, and now a girl could be in danger. Why shouldn't I beat myself up? I put my own family first. all my supposed morals and values - it was all for nothing when it really came to it.”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice

“How charming when a husband's admiration for his wife could survive the discovery that she was homicidal.”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice

“The man clambered into the cave on shaking legs, sucked in a lungful of stale air and stared wide-eyed into the blackness. When the dark mellowed, he shuffled inside and sank onto the seat that a long-dead troglodyte had hewn into the cave wall. The”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice

“I felt the familiar tearing inside, my job tugging me one way, Mum and Gran the other. The job was like a new baby, demanding total commitment and unsociable hours, especially with the Hamilton case. I couldn't bear to fail. I had to prove I was good enough for the opportunity I'd been given. If Mum got more anxious, how could I find the time to be with her? And we needed my salary. Without the money I contributed, Gran couldn't have a private carer. It had been so upsetting for her when she'd had a different one each day, someone she didn't even know, doing the most intimate and unspeakable things to her.”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice

“I'd never really considered Mum's opinions about anything. Dad had opinions, I had opinions, but Mum was just Mum. She looked after everyone else. No one asked her what she thought. And all the time, she'd had these ideas - well thought-out and intelligent and brave. I felt a wave of sickness rising up in me. I'd never really seen her. I'd allowed her to be invisible, to fade into the background, to be defined in my mind only by her relationships with the rest of us, like so many women since the dawn of time. How could I have been so blind and self-centred?”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice

“I paused as the Nine Ladies stone circle came into sight. The stones dated from the Bronze Age and were reputedly created when nine women were turned to stone for dancing on the Sabbath, which seemed harsh. Their presence was greater than their size, which was less than waist height. I felt a tightening in my chest, as if I was being squeezed. The place had an eerie stillness. Even the rustling of the trees and the birdsong quietened as I approached.”
― Roz Watkins, The Devil’s Dice