[In the theatre] Thanks.’ He paused on the stairs. “And good-“Don’t say it!” yelled Helena. “No whistling, no well-wishing.””I thought you weren’t superstitious.””I’m not,’ she said defiantly, ‘but obviously there are limits.

When may did so, he found every cup and saucer, plate, vase, and bowl standing arranged across the floor like pieces in a scaled-up chess game. “The Whitstable family tree,” Bryant explained, entering and setting...

Look at this fog. The damp gets right into your bones. It’s doing my chest no good at all. I’ll need a vapour bath.” Bryant pulled down his scarf and peered over the sodden hedge....

His bedroom was a reflection of Bryant’s mind, its untidy shelves filled with games and puzzles stacked in ancient boxes, statues and mementoes competing for space with books on every subject imaginable, from Sensation and...

What humanity wants most is crude sensation.Really? I thought what humanity wanted most was dignity.

I hate the endless admonishments of a nanny state that lives in fear of its lawyers. While colonies of dim-witted traffic wardens swarm about looking for minor parking infringements, nobody seems to notice that our...

The true mark of English conversation is not being able to tell when you’ve been insulted. I think the more sophisticated society becomes, the more it hides behind the masks it manufactures.

It was true that the city could still throw shadows filled with mystifying figures from its past, whose grip on the present could be felt on certain strange days, when the streets were dark with...

She had a smile that could put a froth on a cup of coffee, and she knew it.

Statistics show that the nature of English crime is reverting to its oldest habits. In a country where so many desire status and wealth, petty annoyances can spark disproportionately violent behaviour. We become frustrated because...

The Victorians lost a few workers in everything they built, rather like a votive offering.