“She should have done science, not spent all her time with her head in novels. Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality ...”

“Amelia envisaged that between York and the royal-infested Scottish Highlands there was a grimy wasteland of derelict cranes and abandoned mills and betrayed, yet still staunch, people. Oh and moorl...”

“She had one of those husky voices that sounded as if she were permanently coming down with a cold. Men seemed to find that sexy in a woman, which Jackson thought was odd because it made women sound...”

“She could have happily lived inside any nineteenth century novel.”

“This Henry lived in Edinburgh, making him inaccessible and giving her something to do on the weekends 'Oh, just flying up to Scotland, Henry's taking me fishing,' which is the kind of thing she im...”

“She was a terrible mother, there was no doubt about it, but she didn't even have the strength to feel guilty.”

“It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.”

“It didn't matter that there was a war on our doorstep. She had things to do, places to be.”

“Stranger inside me, when you are born, I will give youa closed book and ask you never to read it, never rest, never forgive a man who wants to save you.”