Alan Bradley
Alan Bradley
book eight heaven
As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No ... eight days a week.
cultivating
Anyone who knew the word slattern was worth cultivating as a friend.
daughter father long-ago
It is not unknown for fathers with a brace of daughters to reel off their names in order of birth when summoning the youngest, and I had long ago become accustomed to being called 'Ophelia Daphne Flavia, damn it.
spoiled spoiled-brat brat
Compared with my life Cinderella was a spoiled brat.
self two laughing
I'm at that age where I watch such things with two minds, one that cackles at these capers and another that never gets much beyond a rather jaded and self-conscious smile, like the Mona Lisa.
children father book
I was an early reader, and my grandmother, who as a child had been forbidden to read by a father who believed books to be frivolous time-wasters, delighted in putting her favorite volumes into her grandchildren's hands.
long would-be lasting
I always knew that I wanted to work on my own material - something that would be more long-lasting than short-lived electronic transmissions.
people
The very best people are like that. They don't entangle you like flypaper.
husband grandmother air
My grandmother flew only once in her life, and that was the day she and her new husband ascended into the skies of Victorian London in the wicker basket of a hot-air balloon. They were soon to emigrate to Canada, and the aerial ride was meant to be a last view of their beloved England.
inspiration self volcanoes
If you remember nothing else, remember this: Inspiration from outside one's self is like the heat in an oven. It makes passable Bath buns. But inspiration from within is like a volcano: It changes the face of the world.
stupidity mind demand
One of the marks of a truly great mind, I had discovered, is the ability to feign stupidity on demand.
holiday thinking special
Although it is pleasant to think about poison at any season, there is something special about Christmas, and I found myself grinning.
thinking politics lists
The spectrum on the list is very broad. It includes leftists who think that whiny liberals should be stuffed in a sack and drowned.
book grandmother great-love
I grew up in a very British family who had been transplanted to Canada, and my grandmother's house was filled with English books. I was a very early reader, so I was really brought up being surrounded with piles of British books and British newspapers, British magazines. I developed a really great love of England.