David Barnett > Quotes

“Our goal, as lovers of God and students of His word, is to embrace the truth of the whole counsel of God recognizing that the truth is always more glorious than error. ”
― David Barnett, The Heart of the Commandments; Delving the Depths of the Divine Decalogue

“Don’t think of it as killing a person. Think of it as redistributing the force that winds through us all. Using it for the greater good, rather than having it stoppered up in a sad, vicious little man.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“She knows how to walk through the woods now. You need permission to be there, which is not obtained through asking. It is granted for purity of thought and stoutness of heart, for honesty and peace. You can never be part of the woods, never be of the woods, but you can be in the woods, for a brief moment in time, like a lover inside another. It is a bargain, a compact, a tryst. To partake of what it offers, you must leave something of yourself behind. Few people know that, thinks Sophie, as her hand trails over the wych elm in the shadows of the trees. It can be a memory of childhood, or a trinket given by a long-forgotten suitor. A baby’s shoe, or a cat’s claw. A secret whispered into a hole in the ground and covered over with leaves. A drop of blood.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“Long ago, men respected the land and the sea in equal measure, and it was a more harmonious time. The world was full of gods, the gods of wild rivers and bleak moors, and in the land dwelt the god of the orchard, Avallen, who lived beneath a lone apple tree on a wood-ringed hill that came to bear his name, Nans-Avallen. On the beach below Nans-Avallen the waves crashed onto the shore, ebbing and flowing when called by the moon, and in those waves lived Endellion, the lady of the sea. Men paid fealty to both Avallen and Endellion, and she filled their nets with fish while he caused their crops to grow and their livestock to become fat.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“The high priestess and the sacrificial victim. Both of them in the same place, probably for the first time. Taran knew, of course, who one was, but not yet the other. And neither of the women concerned had any idea at all. Not yet, at any rate.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“We need a TV,’ he’d said as they sized up the house. ‘What about this 98-inch screen?’ ‘We won’t be watching TV,’ said Jen happily. ‘We’ll be walking along the cliffs and having picnics on the beach and drinking in the Star and Anchor and surfing and—’ ‘What about when it rains, though?’ ‘Then we’ll sit in front of the log burner and make love and watch storms rolling in from the sea,’ said Jen. ‘The 98-inch,’ Justin had said firmly, hitting the buy button.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“As she gazed up at it from her window, she remembered something she’d read years and years ago, that if you slept with the moon shining on you it was a sure way to go mad.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“I am both the land, and of the land,’ he says. ‘I am the air, and of the air. I am the water, and of the water.’ His black eyes seem to glow. ‘I am the fire, and of the fire.’ Owd Hob sweeps his hand and the bare, dead trees seem to shudder, and then burst into life, buds and then leaves sprouting from their dry branches, insects crawling along their moistening bark, birds singing in the exaggerated colours of their foliage. ‘I am all of that, and all of that is me,’ says Owd Hob. ‘I was here before anything, and after everything here, I shall be.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“He, who sits in front of her, pinprick eyes piercing her soul. He, who is known to her, whatever cellular memory she has from her time outside suddenly plucking at her nerves like violin strings and sending his name shimmering along every sinew. He, who is the master of this place and, she now knows for certain, the master of her. Owd Hob.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“And once he believed, once he had seen for himself that his daddy was not lying, nor raving with illness, he was approached by Reverend Bligh and Lizzie Moon and inducted into the other life of Scuttler’s Cove, and the skin of what he had always considered normal life was peeled back, and he was shown the secrets and horrors that swarmed beneath.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“What are you?’ asks the farmer. ‘Boggart? Fairy? Sprite?’ Owd Hob looks back at Catherine, then says, ‘All of these things and none of them. I am of the land and the land is of me.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“It’s why we have the Fish Festival, in part,’ said Janet. ‘The story goes that Avallen was the lord of the orchard, and Endellion the lady of the sea. They were in love, but Avallen spurned her. She was furious and vowed to destroy Scuttler’s Cove, which was the domain of Avallen, and which he brought prosperity to. The Fish Festival every year is held to appease Endellion and to thank her for the bounty of the sea. In olden times everyone would have an Eye of Avallen in their window during the Festival, to ward off the vengeance of Endellion.’ ‘So why paint it on one of the incomer’s doors? In blood?’ wondered Mary. ‘Why try to scare them off with that?’ ‘Maybe it’s not a threat,’ said Janet. ‘Maybe it’s a warning.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“It's the way of things in Withered Hill.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“Cornish dialect word for ants.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“They know the song though they never learned it. They were born with it in them, like their hearts that beat and their lungs that breathe. And before they were here, before any like them were here, the song would be sung by squirrels or rabbits, whistled by birds and hummed by bees. And before even they were here, the song was sung by beasts long since disappeared from the earth. And before even them, when the world was silent, save for the roaring of water and the burning of fire and the rushing of air and the grinding of the earth’s plates and joints as it settled into itself, the song was sung by the wind in the trees.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“As I were going up Withered Hill With night-time coming soon I met a man under the trees Whiter than the moon He smiled at me and stroked my hair I were frit for my life He showed his teeth and smiled and said, ‘Owd Hob wants a wife”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“No, you shouldn’t kill spiders,’ she said softly. ‘Gizo wouldn’t like it.’ Maggie sipped at her latte then said, ‘Gizo? Was he the landlord of the pub last night?’ ‘That was Clemmo,’ said Jen. She looked at Adaku. ‘Who is Gizo?’ ‘Trickster spider god,’ said Adaku, still staring at the place on the worktop where the spider had been squished. Jen noticed she was scratching idly at her wrist again. Speaking almost absently, Adaku said, ‘Once, long ago in my country, there was a very bad drought and a long summer and the worst famine anyone could remember. Everyone was hungry, even the gods. Even Gizo. But Gizo had a plan.’ Maggie opened her mouth to say something but then seemed to think better of it, and listened. Adaku went on, ‘Gizo went to the elephant, and said many flattering things to him, that he was the master of all the land. And that the hippopotamus, who was the master of all the waters, deferred to the elephant and wished to give him a gift. He would give a horse to the elephant, but the elephant had to give a gift to the hippopotamus in return.’ Jen could almost see the cogs turning in Maggie’s mind, wondering what use an elephant had for a horse, but the other woman kept silent. Adaku said, ‘The elephant agreed to give a hundred baskets of grain to the hippopotamus, in thanks for the kind gift that was forthcoming. ‘Then Gizo went to the hippopotamus, and said the elephant wished to give a gift of a fine horse in deference to hippopotamus’s mastery of the water, but would like a gift of a hundred baskets of fish in return. Of course, neither the grain nor the fish reached their intended recipients. And Gizo’s belly was full while everyone else starved.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“She knows how to walk through the woods now. You need permission to be there, which is not obtained through asking. It is granted for purity of thought and stoutness of heart, for honesty and peace. You can never be part of the woods, never be of the woods, but you can be in the woods, for a brief moment in time, like a lover inside another.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“And then she sees them. They are as though carved from the bark, figures bound like twigs with twine, but huge, sometimes as big as a man, sometimes smaller, sometimes with far more dark, gathered mass. They are feathers and fur and beaks and teeth and yellow, raptor eyes. They are skin and bone and rags and shadows, sprouting from the land and hanging from the trees. They are the fruit of the woods and the heartbeat of the earth and the devils in the details of the rough, hard-hewn land on which Sophie stands like an alien entity that does not belong there. They chitter and chatter and sing like birds, squeal like mice, grunt like pigs, and together they are the most terrifying thing Sophie hopes ever to see in her life.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“Avallen, lord of the vale, who dwells beneath the apple tree, we have seen your sign. The seed has been planted and the flower will bloom, just as your fruit grows on the bough. As is the tradition of our people, to ensure the future vitality of our town, we bring to you the offering that you demand.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“It was to my sweet Avallen, lord of the land, god of the orchard, that they directed their offerings. Because he was a man, in their eyes, and that meant they could understand his hungers, and lusts, and they could give him what they believed he desired. They remade him in their image, which is what men do with their gods. All the better to understand them, and thus own and control them.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“The school where Catherine teaches is called St Michael’s, and that is a nod to the Christian faith, but only because, as Thaddeus Obermann once told her, Michael was the patron saint of fairies and intervened with God on their behalf, and saved them from destruction so long as they inhabited dark, out-of-the-way places.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“Those apples are amazing,’ said Bobby casually. ‘The things they can let you do.’ Taran felt his legs turn to jelly. ‘Nans-Avallen apples? You’ve been eating them? Bobby. No. You’re lying.’ Bobby flexed his bicep. ‘I feel incredible. Why has nobody ever eaten them before?’ ‘Because they’re his apples, you fucking idiot,’ hissed Taran. ‘They contain his essence. And now, so do you.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“The Fish Festival was one of those things you got all over Cornwall, like the ’Obby ’Oss festival in Padstow, its origins lost in the mists of time, something fun but also slightly creepy. There was a procession and an offering to the sea and then everyone got very, very drunk. It attracted a few tourists, but was really something for the locals.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“Aye, the hubris he might have once proudly worn himself, like a badge of honour. Back when he believed he could do anything, and nobody could stop him. Back in the days when, if he saw something he wanted, he took it, and the devil take anyone who tried to stop him. The devil take anyone who tried to stop him, he thought, as he stood as near to the edge of Nans-Avallen as he dared, gazing down on the town below, lit up with life. That was him, once, abandoned and free and raising a glass to anyone and everyone. But then that night happened, and it was, in fact, him who the devil took.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“For what other cure is there for a broken heart than to withdraw from the world?”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“She’s named for a saint, so some say, but that’s not the case. The saint was named for her, because she’s older than the saints, older than the people, older than the land, for did not the seas come first when the world was created…? And when man fails to understand something, or wishes it to not exist, he takes its name and gives that name to some other thing, something he has created, something he can manage and control and which is not as fearsome as the thing whose name he has stolen. But she cannot be managed, nor controlled, she can only be honoured,”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“the warm sea breeze playing over her, the grass damp beneath her feet. She saw clouds scudding across the moon and the white crests of waves out on the dark sea. Somewhere in the far-off distance a whale sang, and night-birds chattered, and the trees whispered.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove

“She doesn’t want to leave. She can’t wait to leave. She says out loud, her voice hoarse and strangled, ‘I must be mad. Or I wouldn’t have come here.”
― David Barnett, Withered Hill

“Lizzie had cursed them all, then wept, and hugged her baby. She hadn’t wanted that for Merrin, no mother would. But in the end, she had accepted it. Lizzie Moon was who she was, and now so was Merrin. A Daughter of the Soil, her path set.”
― David Barnett, Scuttler's Cove