Steve Robinson > Quotes

“Well, take e-mail for example. People don’t write to each other anymore, do they? Once my generation’s gone, the written letter will be consigned to social history. Tell me, Jefferson. When did you last write a letter?’ Tayte had to think about it. When the occasion came to him, he smiled, wide and cheesy. ‘It was to you,’ he said. ‘I wrote you on your sixtieth birthday.’ ‘That was five years ago.’ ‘I still wrote you.’ Marcus looked sympathetic. ‘It was an e-mail.’ ‘Was it?’ Marcus nodded. ‘You see my point? Letters are key to genealogical research, and they’re becoming obsolete. Photographs are going the same way.’ He looked genuinely saddened by the thought. ‘How many connections have you made going through boxes of old letters and faded sepia photographs? How many assignments would have fallen flat without them?’ ‘Too many,’ Tayte agreed. ‘I can’t see genealogists of the future fervently poring over their clients’ old e-mails, can you? Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the excitement and the scent of time that so often accompanies the discovery?’ He had Tayte there, too. Tayte’s methods were straight out of the ‘Marcus Brown School of Family History.’ Tripping back into the past through an old letter and a few photographs represented everything he loved about his work. It wouldn’t be the same without the sensory triggers he currently took for granted.”
― Steve Robinson, The Last Queen of England

“I have a fear of dying partway through a book—of never knowing the ending. It’s silly, I know, but it makes me a quick reader.”
― Steve Robinson, To the Grave

“looked genuinely saddened by the thought. ‘How many connections have you made going through boxes of old letters and faded sepia photographs? How many assignments would have fallen flat without them?’ ‘Too many,’ Tayte”
― Steve Robinson, The Last Queen of England

“of”
― Steve Robinson, In the Blood

“Elspeth removed one of her pills and placed it into her mouth. She drew a slow breath and sighed again, only this time she did so quietly and with satisfaction, no doubt taking comfort in the knowledge that her little opium pill would see her through. Jane cared nothing for such things. She’d read of its effects, and she’d seen them manifested often enough. She had noted how it could, for a short time, replace misery with happiness, how it excited and enlarged the senses, and in many cases, when the dose was high enough, led to both moral and physical debility. Ultimately, however, it appeared to leave one all the more disconsolate. She had read that it was rare to find an ‘opium-eater’ over thirty years of age if the practice had been started early enough. To her knowledge, however, this was a new fixation for Elspeth, which had begun soon after their arrival in Bombay. She prayed that Arabella would not take to it as her mother had.”
― Steve Robinson, Letters From the Dead

“The past is already written, Jefferson. The future, on the other hand, is a story yet to be told. So write it well.”
― Steve Robinson, The Lost Empress

“The faces around her were blank, except for Elspeth’s, who seemed to smile with delight every time a shot was fired, as if she were watching fireworks explode around her. Her opium tablet had clearly taken its desired effect.”
― Steve Robinson, Letters From the Dead

“was”
― Steve Robinson, The Last Queen of England

“Thinking about phone calls reminded”
― Steve Robinson, To the Grave

“him. The water splashed above her, and she saw a hand”
― Steve Robinson, The Lost Empress

“His eyes drifted back up to the top of the letter. On one side was the name and address of the recipient, William Dredger of Chesterfield in Derbyshire. On the other was the sender’s return address in Jaipur.”
― Steve Robinson, Letters From the Dead

“digits told him he’d be in Leicester in around forty-five minutes,”
― Steve Robinson, To the Grave

“Only a fool takes freedom for granted, but are we ever truly free? I had always thought I was, but just as a child is controlled by parental constraint, so is a married woman governed by her husband’s will. To be truly free, one must live without rule or boundary, and yet I now found myself encumbered by both.”
― Steve Robinson, The Secret Wife

“you had to know what you were looking for or the data would drown you.”
― Steve Robinson, To the Grave