Andy Howells

“Lestrade and his men, Watson? I made the mistake of trusting them before. I have no intention of doing so again.”
― Martin Davies, Mrs Hudson and the Malabar Rose

“Maurice Blanche rested his glass on the trolley, then looked at his hands, turning them over, frowning and smiling in equal measure. 'They say the face tells all there is to know about a life, but I personally believe much can be deduced from the hands. There are lines and scars, bumps and calluses; indeed, the hands are both the sketch and the final work of art.'

Maisie looked at her hands. She had always been somewhat embarrassed by them. They were hands that told a story of hard manual labour when she was a child, hands that had scrubbed floors, had polished heavy oaken furniture. Later, they had soothed the sick, and had rested on the foreheads of the dying. She realised that she had no recollection of her hands as a schoolgirl, uncomfortable with the conversation's direction.”
― Jacqueline Winspear, The Mapping of Love and Death

“Christmas gone now, a mere unlovely, unsettling shadow on the bathroom scales and the credit-card statement.”
― James Hawes, Speak For England

“I am always being asked: ‘What are the Beatles really like?’ I never know quite what to say because they are what they are and anyone who has ever seen or heard them either in person, or on radio or screen has, basically, as much chance as I have of knowing what they are like. I believe and I must say it, that they are quite magnificent human beings, utterly honest, often irritating but splendid citizens shining in a very ordinary, not very pleasing world.”
― Brian Epstein, A Cellarful of Noise: The Autobiography of the Man Who Made the Beatles With a New Companion Narrative