Rosie Clarke > Quotes

“cap to scratch his bald head. ‘Well, you won’t miss the veg because I’ll be bringing you some every week now. I’ve always got plenty left over and I’d rather give it to you than see it waste.’ He gave a rumbling laugh. ‘I caught that young Tommy Barton digging potatoes from Percy’s plot this mornin’. Give ’im a cuff round ’is ear but I let him take what he’d dug. Poor little bugger’s only tryin’ to keep his ma from starvin’; ain’t ’is fault ’is old man got banged up for robbin’, is it?’ Tilly Barton, her two sons Tommy and Sam and her husband, lived almost opposite the Pig & Whistle. Mulberry Lane cut across from Bell Lane and ran adjacent to Spitalfields Market, and the folk of the surrounding lanes were like a small community, almost a village in the heart of London’s busy East End. Tilly and her husband had been good customers for Peggy until he lost his job on the Docks. It had come as a shock when he’d been arrested for trying to rob a little corner post office and Peggy hadn’t seen Tilly to talk to since; she’d assumed it was because the woman was feeling ashamed of what her husband had done. ‘No, of course not.’ Peggy smiled at him. A wisp of her honey-blonde hair had fallen across her face, despite all her efforts to sweep it up under a little white cap she wore for cooking. ‘I didn’t realise Tilly Barton was in such trouble. I’ll take her a pie over later – she won’t be offended, will she?’ ‘No one in their right mind would be offended by you, Peggy love.’ ‘Thank you, Jim. Would you like a cup of coffee and a slice of apple pie?’ ‘Don’t mind a slice of that pie, but I’ll take it for my docky down the allotment if that’s all right?’ Peggy assured him it was and wrapped a generous slice of her freshly cooked pie in greaseproof paper. He took it and left with a smile and a promise to see her next week just as her husband entered the kitchen. ‘Who was that?’ Laurence asked as he saw the back of Jim walking away. ‘Jim Stillman, he brought the last of the stuff from Percy’s allotment.’ Peggy’s eyes brimmed and Laurence frowned. ‘I don’t know what you’re upset for, Peggy. Percy was well over eighty. He’d had a good life – and it wasn’t even as if he was your father…’ ‘I know. He was a lot older than Mum but…Percy was a good stepfather to me, and wonderful to Mum when she was so ill after we lost Walter.’ Peggy’s voice faltered, because it still hurt her that her younger brother had died in the Great War at the tender age of seventeen. The news had almost destroyed their mother and Peggy thought of those dark days as the worst of her”
― Rosie Clarke, The Girls of Mulberry Lane

“It is research, Susie. If you want a man to respect your ideas, you must do your research. When I present his lordship with my business plan. he may not refuse it as a whim”
― Rosie Clarke, Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley

“streets.”
― Rosie Clarke, A New Dawn on Mulberry Lane

“loved me,’ he’d told”
― Rosie Clarke, New Arrivals at Mulberry Lane

“promise”
― Rosie Clarke, A New Dawn on Mulberry Lane

“scarf in green and priced”
― Rosie Clarke, Rainy Days for the Harpers Girls

“be”
― Rosie Clarke, The Women of Mulberry Lane

“and that meant she had to find work. Since that”
― Rosie Clarke, New Arrivals at Mulberry Lane

“Chapter 9 ‘What are we goin’ ter give Peggy and ’er family fer Christmas?’ Tom said to his”
― Rosie Clarke, Mulberry Lane Babies

“turned Britain into one huge armed camp.”
― Rosie Clarke, Emma's War

“not?’ Marcus said and”
― Rosie Clarke, A Family Secret

“one into the other during the month of August. It”
― Rosie Clarke, Wartime Blues for the Harpers Girls

“HEARTACHE AT BLACKBERRY FARM ROSIE CLARKE”
― Rosie Clarke, Heartache at Blackberry Farm

“Oh, I’ve gone off men altogether. Tony wanted me to do exactly what he wanted; he didn’t care how I felt – they’re all the same…”
― Rosie Clarke, Lizzie's Secret

“hadn’t”
― Rosie Clarke, A New Dawn on Mulberry Lane

“of”
― Rosie Clarke, The Shop Girls of Harpers

“acknowledgements”
― Rosie Clarke, Nellie's Heartbreak

“putting on”
― Rosie Clarke, A Sister's Destiny

“You're a different girl to the one I first met. You've got purpose in your step and you want to get on in life, but you've learned the meaning of love and kindness, haven't you?”
― Rosie Clarke, Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley

“can’t”
― Rosie Clarke, Family Matters at Blackberry Farm

“never drank to excess; he was too mean to waste his money”
― Rosie Clarke, The Girls of Mulberry Lane

“It will be done discreetly, of course - but the idea that a lady cannot work is truly outdated, Susie. Women of all stations worked hard throughout the war; many ladies of good breeding became nurses and ambulance drivers, women of all classes did so many things they would not have dreamed of before...”
― Rosie Clarke, Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley

“Winnie thought the fashion was almost a symbol of the new-found freedom many women now enjoyed”
― Rosie Clarke, Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley

“me knitting. Any reference to the child I was carrying was sufficient to put him in an awkward mood, and Richard’s moods were worse than Father’s – though of late there had been little to choose between them. Leaving Mother listening to music on the wireless, I went out into the hall. I was in time to see my Father standing halfway up the stairs, bent almost double with what was obviously severe pain. ‘Father!’ I cried. ‘You’re ill. Let me help you.’ ‘No, no,”
― Rosie Clarke, Emma

“Maggie”
― Rosie Clarke, The Shop Girls of Harpers

“She would very much have liked to claim her as a friend, but Susie knew her place and could not be coerced into forgetting herself. She considered herself privileged to have her ladyship's confidence, but even though they often laughed together, there was a line beyond which she would not go”
― Rosie Clarke, Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley

“hopefully then. ‘I’d love to go,’ Marion had told him. ‘It’s kind of you – and Paula – to think of me.’ ‘I’d like to think of you more,’ Reggie had said,”
― Rosie Clarke, Rainy Days for the Harpers Girls

“This is just one small part of what we do. People who believe we simply parade up and down and chain ourselves to railings know nothing of the secret lives we lead, exposing the illegal treatment of women wherever we find it”
― Rosie Clarke, Dangerous Times on Dressmakers' Alley

“doctor”
― Rosie Clarke, Emma's Duty

“suffering such pain and they couldn’t help her just tore her apart. Wild thoughts of asking Reggie to interfere went through her mind, but that was a last resort. Neighbours and friends did not interfere between husband and wife, even”
― Rosie Clarke, Rainy Days for the Harpers Girls