Max Hennessy > Quotes

“The Sea Shall Not Have Them Table of”
― Max Hennessy, The Sea Shall Not Have Them

“sir?’ ‘The ship’s captain on such occasions will be in bed with a high fever and will be asleep.’ It might have been a better idea, Magnusson thought, to have made him the ship’s captain, but he supposed a naval ship had to have a naval captain. ‘I see, sir,’ he said. The admiral gestured. ‘A great deal will depend on you, my lad,’ he said briskly. ‘Which is why you’re being done the honour of a personal briefing, something not normally granted to a junior officer. At the right time a sighting will be reported, showing you to be in mid-Atlantic, and inevitably the Germans will pick it up. Another sighting will be arranged later to show you off the Faeroes. In fact, you will sail up the Irish Sea, through the Minches, and, keeping well out from land to avoid being spotted, you will make your landfall west of the Lofotens and put into Narvik. There, you will be informed of what’s going on by our contact, a woman called Annie Egge, who runs the Norwegian equivalent of our Missions to Seamen. She will give you – you, Magnusson, because as the linguist, she’ll be dealing with you – she will give you your information. I don’t know what she’s like – like most middle-aged ladies who run Missions to Seamen, I suppose – all God and woollen comforts – but she has been feeding us reliable information for some time about German shipping, gleaned no doubt over the cups of tea and the meat and potato pie or whatever it is they serve up in Norway. Since, in the event of a German move into Norway, we shall need to know a few facts, you will keep your eyes open and take note of all Norwegian naval vessels, fortifications and movements, and all army and air force installations. You will remain there for several days under the guise of Finnish sailors making repairs after the voyage across the North Atlantic to enable you to reach Mariehamn.”
― Max Hennessy, North Strike

“travel via Mexico City. There appeared to be no”
― Max Hennessy, The Revolutionaries

“Boyle looked at Kelly. He was a slightly-built young man with pale anonymous hair and eyes, and as a cadet in the torpedoed cruiser, Cressy, in 1914, had been as near to death as he was ever likely to be when he’d been dragged by Kelly to a raft and pushed aboard. In Boyle’s eyes there never was and never would be again anybody quite like Kelly Maguire.”
― Max Hennessy, The Dangerous Years

“Oh, Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me.”
― Max Hennessy, The Iron Stallions

“Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery—”
― Max Hennessy, Blunted Lance

“I always thought the Aegean was a thing of beauty and a joy for ever,’ Lyster said as he stood with Bennett and Kelly on the casing. ‘Wine-dark seas and cool islands full of sloe-eyed houris and that sort of thing.”
― Max Hennessy, The Lion at Sea

“Newspapers are run by a set of cads who make profits out of other people dying.”
― Max Hennessy, Blunted Lance

“A ribald request to the stationmaster at Invergordon to ‘get a bloody move on’ had brought only the dignified reply that ‘the Hielan’ Railway was no’ designed to stand the strain o’ a European war.”
― Max Hennessy, The Lion at Sea

“They’re not all as good as you.’ He frowned.”
― Max Hennessy, Soldier of the Queen

“a stable future.”
― Max Hennessy, The Bright Blue Sky

“Laying down your life for your country’, he realised, was merely a phrase invented by writers, and the truth was different”
― Max Hennessy, Soldier of the Queen