James Robinson

“When the French come over,
May we meet them at Dover!’ This was a patriotic toast in Mr. Sapsea’s infancy, and he is therefore fully convinced of its being appropriate to any subsequent era.”
― Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

“Family stories intermingle in such ways that what happened generations ago can have an impact on seemingly irrelevant developments of the present day. The past is anything but bygone.”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“You know now, don’t you, that even a poor monotonous chorister and grinder of music—in his niche—may be troubled with some stray sort of ambition, aspiration, restlessness, dissatisfaction, what shall we call it?”
― Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood