Alice Thomas Ellis
Alice Thomas Ellis
Alice Thomas Elliswas a British writer and essayist. She was the author of numerous novels, and also of some non-fiction, including cookery books. Although her married name was Anna Haycraft, she is best known by her nom-de-plume...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth9 September 1932
disappointment thinking idols
There is a hint of despair in the cry of 'I told you so,' an element of disappointment in the apparent satisfaction when idols turn out to have clay feet. The human race, when it thinks it has proved that no one is superior, is partly gratified and partly depressed.
love-is clothes people
I have frequently thought that the dead should be buried with all their belongings. It seems weirdly perverse that their clothes should still be here when the people you love best in the world have gone.
innocence combination insolence
Adolescence is usually typified by an unanswerable combination of innocence and insolence.
party people interesting
It's when most of the guests have gone that the party really gets interesting - peering under the table and into the bath to see who's stayed and what shape they're in. It is then that those who are still conscious divulge things you had not known before: sometimes about themselves, sometimes about other people and sometimes about you. It does not necessarily make pleasant hearing but it is always fascinating. In the relaxed atmosphere, in the wake of the hubbub, they unwind and grow confidential - nay, indiscreet. If they are not already, they end up as your closest friends.
mind welcome trouble
I have never had much trouble simultaneously entertaining diametrically opposed propositions, and welcome the possibility that this is not because I have one mind and am out of it, but because I have lots of them, all beavering away on their own.
laughter evil
Evil and laughter cannot co-exist.
doe chance god-does-exist
Our only hope rests on the off-chance that God does exist.
drinking men ties
There seems to be a peculiar and particular tie between men who have been drunk together.