“Pam wasn't what Gloria would have called a friend, just someone she had known for so long that she had given up trying to get rid of her.”

“Get down,' Bunty says grimly. 'Mummy's thinking.' (Although what Mummy's actually doing is wondering what it would be like if her entire family was wiped out and she could start again.)”

“Men had no purpose on earth whereas women were gods walking unrecognized among them.”

“Mum had a Charles-and-Diana wedding mug that had survived longer than the marriage itself. Mum had worshipped Princess Di and frequently lamented her passing. "Gone," she would say, shaking her hea...”

“But I know nothing; my future is a wide-open vista, leading to an unknown country - The Rest Of My Life.”

“In the end, it is my belief, words are the only things that can construct a world that makes sense.”

“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.”