Joyce Dennys > Quotes

“Living in a small town...is like living in a large family of rather uncongenial relations. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s perfectly awful, but it’s always good for you. People in large towns are like only-children.”
― Joyce Dennys, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945

“...‘All this suffering,’ I said, ‘and nothing but greed and violence to build on when the war is over.’
‘Have another soda-mint,’ said Charles.
I had one. Then I said, ‘Why are we here? That’s what I don’t understand. Why be here at all when it all has to be so beastly?’
‘I suppose we just came, like mould on cheese.’
‘Then why do we want to be happy? Mould on cheese doesn’t want to be happy.’ ...”
― Joyce Dennys, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945

“Last week posters appeared up and down the street which said "GIVE A GOOD BOOK IN AID OF THE RED CROSS". I was pleased when I saw them, for I thought it must mean books of a religious nature were needed, and as I haven't got any it absolved me from all responsibility.
To part with even one of the tattered and incongruous volume which form what I am pleased to call my library is, for me, worse than losing a front tooth. Sometimes I wake in the night and writhe to think of the books I have lent to people and never seen again. Once I groaned aloud and woke Charles. "What is the matter Henrietta?" he said, "Have you got a pain?"
"No, Charles, but I keep thinking of that copy of Barchester Towers which I lent somebody and never got back."
"For crying out loud!" said Charles, and went to sleep again.”
― Joyce Dennys, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945

“To have visitors during a Day in Bed is a grave error. It means getting out to do your hair, make up your face, and have your bed made. A little talk on the telephone with some sympathetic friend who is really interested in your symptoms is the only social intercourse that should be allowed. A good deal of pleasure can be derived from asking for your fountain-pen and notepaper, and then not writing any letters.”
― Joyce Dennys, Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942

“If I were the Minister for Propaganda, Robert – and I often feel it is a pity I am not – I would make everybody sing every day, provided, of course, that enough saint-like Conductors could be found to go round.”
― Joyce Dennys, Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942

“It’s not much fun, you know, being a middle-aged woman, safe and protected, on a roof, thinking of other people in danger.”
― Joyce Dennys, Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942