Rachael English > Quotes

“One was definitely Irish….The second man was unmistakably American. It wasn’t so much his tan or dark hair that gave him away as how he held himself. He had an eager air, as though the world was full of possibility. Irish people never looked like that.”
― Rachael English, Going Back

“Isn’t that the way we all work, Elizabeth, honey? Mostly, people let you see what they want you to see. They give you one version of themselves: the version where life is straightforward and work is great and the family are a blessing. You have no idea how much they may be struggling.”
― Rachael English

“responsibility.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“We can’t allow silly young girls to harm innocent children. As for earning a living: what respectable employer would give work to the mother of an illegitimate child? And what about the good Catholic couples who can’t have children of their own? Have you thought about them? Should they be made to suffer?”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“Men can’t help themselves, so the burden falls on women to keep society safe and close to God.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“He was right. Kaitlin was at odds not just with her family, but also with her generation. She’d never been one for pouring out her heart. In the past, she’d been told that this self-sufficiency could come across as arrogance. What people didn’t realise was that she hated judgement. She liked to solve her own problems and answer her own questions without interference from others. Because she found it hard to confide in people, she didn’t have many close friends. There was, she believed, something lacking in her, some skill that other people acquired without thinking.”
― Rachael English, The Letter Home

“still”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“You have fallen and you can rise again. The day will come when you walk out of here and begin afresh. But I warn you, Patricia, if you behave as though you belong in the gutter, the gutter is where you’ll end up.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“It wasn’t as though the protest had been in pursuit of any particular aim or agenda; more that, for a short time, it had made them feel like they had some control over their lives. They’d sung because it had felt good.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“I think what matters most is that we remember”
― Rachael English, The Letter Home

“They were a ragtag bunch, their stomachs swelling against their ugly uniforms, their hair tied up in topknots, their faces pink from heat and exertion. They’d been assaulted, abandoned, discarded, left in the lurch. They’d been branded, insulted and punished. They were sluts, tramps, whores, fallen women. Their babies would be taken from them without consideration or permission. And still they sang.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“playlist.”
― Rachael English, The Last Song

“It seemed to her that nowadays, young women were allowed to make a splash. Older ones were still expected to colour inside the lines.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“Religion had treated her like a criminal when in reality she’d been a victim.”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet

“Increasingly, it had felt as if they were together under false pretences. If they’d remained a couple, she’d have had to keep twisting herself into shapes to meet with his approval. Eventually, she’d have become one of those women who doesn’t realise that this is what she’s doing. She would have disappeared behind a cloak of compromises and feigned interests.”
― Rachael English, The Letter Home

“Even today, when honesty was supposed to be prized, how many women devoted a large part of their lives to constructing an idealised version of themselves?”
― Rachael English, The Paper Bracelet