Dorothy Williamson

“I really do think Britain had attained something approaching perfection just around the time of my arrival. It’s a funny thing because Britain was in a terrible state in those days. It limped from crisis to crisis. It was known as the Sick Man of Europe. It was in every way poorer than now. Yet there were flowerbeds on roundabouts, libraries and post offices in every village, cottage hospitals in abundance, council housing for all who needed it. It was a country so comfortable and enlightened that hospitals maintained cricket pitches for their staff and mental patients lived in Victorian palaces. If we could afford it then, why not now? Someone needs to explain to me how it is that the richer Britain gets the poorer it thinks itself.”
― Bill Bryson, The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain

“rooms, easy to heat. Now there was one L-shaped open-plan”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Forty years of socialism has filled the courts with judges who believe that criminal acts are due to social causes, and that punishment only makes it worse.”
― Mike Bond, Goodbye Paris

“Usually when somebody did you a favour, you not only looked the gift horse well and truly in the mouth, you checked its fetlocks, mane and chest too while you were at it. Not to mention keeping a wary look out for mange, foot rot and fleas. Well, you did if you were a serving copper.”
― Faith Martin, Murder of the Bride