“Things accumulated in purses. Unless they were deliberately unloaded and all contents examined for utility occasionally, one could find oneself transporting around in one's daily life three lipstick cases with just a crumb of lipstick left, an old eyebrow pencil sharpener without a blade, pieces of defunct watch, odd earrings, handkerchiefs (three crumpled, one uncrumpled), two grubby powder puffs, bent hairpins, patterns of ribbon to be matched, a cigarette lighter without fuel (and two with fuel), a spark plug, some papers of Bex and a sprinkling of loose white aspirin, eleven train tickets (the return half of which had not been given up), four tram tickets, cinema and theatre stubs, seven pence three farthings in loose change and the mandatory throat lozenge stuck to the lining. At least, those had been the extra contents of Phyrne's bag the last time Dot had turned it out.”
― Murder in Montparnasse
― Murder in Montparnasse
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
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“My own view is that everyone works too hard and too long and they ought to get out more. There isn’t time in their improverished lives to do anything creative, or even to just sit and stare, one of my favourite occupations. And how the wired-in young—never without their music, never out of touch because of mobile phones, constantly sharing everything, even pictures—are going to cope if they ever encounter solitude and silence is another thing.”
― Trick Or Treat
― Trick Or Treat
“One only has a few fragrant nights of spring. Store your memories for when you are old. You will enjoy them again under such a moon as this.”
― The Castlemaine Murders
― The Castlemaine Murders
“If you are not scared then there is no merit in being brave.”
― Death At Victoria Dock
― Death At Victoria Dock
Cara’s 2025 Year in Books
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