Rhys Dylan > Quotes

“Mining communities stripped of their livelihood, chewed up by politicians and spat out to survive, fragmented and directionless. With no work for the younger generation, as one century died and another was born, the older people who’d been the community’s heart were abandoned with little or no support.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Mark of Imperfection

“But he’d never needed convincing how much a privilege it was to own a dog and have them let you be their reason for being.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Mark of Imperfection

“I heard someone once say that their family was like a squirrel turd. Best avoided and full of nuts.”
― Rhys Dylan, One Less Snake

“He simply did not know what to buy a forty-something-year-old woman without coming across as one of the three of the lesser known of Snow White’s companions: clueless, trite, or sleazy. And he hated the thought of a gift for a gift’s sake.”
― Rhys Dylan, No One Near

“The Lady Anwen thought it would be funny to give me a stuffed sheep wearing a jumper in the style of a stripy humbug last year. Baa‑humbug it’s called.”
― Rhys Dylan, No One Near

“Keen, isn’t he?’ Gil said.
‘Mustard personified.”
― Rhys Dylan, Lines of Inquiry

“Five minutes,’ Gina said. ‘And don’t put your white shirt on until you’ve eaten. I don’t know what your mother puts in her gravy, but we ought to paint it on bomb shelters because it would easily survive an atomic blast. It’s a sod to get out of any clothing.”
― Rhys Dylan, No One Near

“Despite its love affair with the Sunday supplements as a destination town and one of Wales’s most desirable places to live, Llandeilo was an angina town: in desperate need of a bypass.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water

“But it isn’t just my parents,’ Rhys replied. ‘There’s my aunty and uncle and at least four cousins. I mean, it’s a proper circus, clowns included.”
― Rhys Dylan, No One Near

“The DC swung around to face his boss. ‘Gina bought me a gizmo, sir.’ He held up a tiny hourglass style sand‑timer in a reenforced metal cylinder attached to his keys. ‘Glow in the dark, sir. Never get the brew wrong with this.’Warlow nodded his approval. ‘She’s a keeper, that one.’
‘Actually, sir, she plays full back.’
Gil, who’d been arranging a plate of biscuits, stopped, and slowly turned his head to contemplate Rhys. ‘Arglwydd, be still my beating heart. Rhys has cracked a joke and by Grabjar’s Hammer, it’s one worthy of mirth.”
― Rhys Dylan, Lines of Inquiry

“More like a crock of S, H to the one, T, as my nephew would say.”
― Rhys Dylan, Ice Cold Malice

“Because I’ve met Mrs Thorley. And I’ve come across the name before when I worked in the Met. The DI I worked for was a curmudgeonly cove. When he didn’t want to be disturbed, he put a notice on the door. F.O.Y.N.W.’
‘What does it stand for?’
‘Fuck off, you’re not welcome.’
Next to him, Rhys let out a loud guffaw.
‘No red carpet, then, sir,’ Catrin said.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water

“But we all know what happens when you try polishing a turd. It smells bad and it isn’t pretty.”
― Rhys Dylan, The Engine House

“Before you ask, I didn’t make those. They are my grandchildren’s work. The large, round, red blob with the black hat is me, apparently. Strangely, that figure appears, and in the same proportions, in all three of the girls’ art. Obviously, they all have the same defective vision. I’ve booked them an optician’s appointment for the new year.”
― Rhys Dylan, No One Near

“Why was it that management, bad management anyway, always felt the need to state the bloody obvious and get everyone’s goat in the process?”
― Rhys Dylan, The Light Remains

“the business end: the laundry and delivery bays. A safe bet usually. Too far for the infirm to walk and way too far for the privileged hale and hearty”
― Rhys Dylan, Ice Cold Malice

“There are demons in this world, only they don’t have red eyes and horns. They are men and women. Mainly men, admittedly. But they all have something in them. Something that lets them look at the world differently. Look and decide that even though there are rules we must live by in order for us to stop tearing each other apart, those rules somehow don’t apply to them. And the consequences of breaking those rules mean bugger all. They’ve convinced themselves that they’re immune from all the little things that make life tolerable for the rest of us.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water

“They’d”
― Rhys Dylan, The Engine House

“process”
― Rhys Dylan, A Mark of Imperfection

“Life, as they say, is for the living. And death is bloody inconvenient.”
― Rhys Dylan, The Engine House

“Nothing the old brain loves more than a good three a.m. disaster party – worst-case scenarios only, of course,”
― Rhys Dylan, Druid's Moor

“The property probably had an old Welsh name, but Foynw isn’t it.’ ‘How do you know, sir?’ ‘Because I’ve met Mrs Thorley. And I’ve come across the name before when I worked in the Met. The DI I worked for was a curmudgeonly cove. When he didn’t want to be disturbed, he put a notice on the door. F.O.Y.N.W.’ ‘What does it stand for?’ ‘Fuck off, you’re not welcome.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water

“in the darkest stretches of the long night.”
― Rhys Dylan, Burnt Echo

“And when I say ‘offish’, I don’t mean a place where Sean Connery did his accounts.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Mark of Imperfection

“Warlow took note. No hesitation there. Getting into a vehicle with two police officers had its own fear factor. But Finny showed no sign of reticence. That meant either he had nothing to hide, or he enjoyed double bluffing. Some of the worst recidivists he knew could lie through their teeth and swear that day was night”
― Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water

“Foxtrot, Foxtrot, Sierra.”
― Rhys Dylan, Lines of Inquiry

“Unfortunately, the lights drew the attention of a reporter armed with what looked like a blow-dried rat on the end of a stick.”
― Rhys Dylan, Gravely Concerned

“Never underestimate the power of a biscuit. Even the Garibaldi, which my granddaughter recently described as a bread soldier full of squashed flies.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Mark of Imperfection

“Foynw.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water

“Keep that anecdote to yourself, or certainly away from Sergeant Jones. Tea bags and wide‑opened mouths provide a lot of scope for misinterpretation.”
― Rhys Dylan, A Matter of Evidence