A Single Thread Quotes
"She did not need anyone, male or female, to point out her shortcomings."
"This building might look permanent, but parts of it had been taken apart and put back together many times."
"It was impossible to imagine that such bad behaviour could have taken place in so solid a building."
"A neat back means you’ve worked a neat front."
"Her entire focus should be on what you are looking at – let the rest drain away."
"Even almost fourteen years after the War’s end, no one was surprised by sudden tears."
"Thank you." Violet wiped her eyes. "I’m terribly sorry."
"I call it the Cathedral Walk. You can stay the night at mine in the Wallops en route if you like."
"When you were a single woman living on your own on a small salary, background meant little."
"The best way to set in your mind what you’ve learned is to explain it to someone else."
"If she did not say something now while there was an opportunity, she would slowly starve."
"Sometimes I wonder if we couldn’t use even more colour here. It’s so dark – especially in the choir stalls."
"Do be careful on the long-armed cross to pull the long stitch tight; otherwise it puffs out."
"Of course, it’s much more important to make something for your mother than for your grandmother."
"I am not going to run after her with my present like a supplicant bearing an offering."
"Perhaps you should come along to the meeting before the broderers break for the summer."
"Life then boiled down to a row of blue stitches that became a long braid across the canvas."
"The married women spoke more than the spinsters, assuming a natural authority."
"The contemporary version of spinning, you might say."
"It was a bit much calling him a friend when she’d only met him once."
"So much of a pub’s atmosphere depended on the standard the publican set. If he treated Violet as if she belonged, so would his customers."
"It ground her down, this constant worry about every transaction and whether she could afford it."
"The biological imperative of the parent is to protect the child, and when that is impossible it feels like a failure, whatever the circumstances."
"It’s not easy being a woman on your own. No one expects it, though there are plenty of us. The ‘surplus’ women."
"There’s something quite mysterious about the pattern of bells ringing – more so than if it were a melody, which would be too predictable."
"I have seen these bells for going on forty years, and I never grow tired of the sight of them."
"Perhaps we are. Would you rather we rang a tune?"
"People like to make their mark. You’ll see graffiti everywhere."
"I could look at this view all day. But we must get on."
"It is important to make one’s mark. It may be the only mark we make. Sic parvis magna."
"How did the men who carved that stone feel when it was installed here, do you think? Did they just go to the pub afterwards and say ‘Job well done’ to each other?"
"Who was that? Arthur Knight. He’s a bellringer. I’ve been up to see the bells here."
"I have always admired bells. They bring a space to life."
"Love is the sweetest thing. What else on earth could ever bring such happiness to everything as love’s old story."
"It’s just kneelers at the moment. Once enough cushions are ready, they’ll add them all at once, to make more of an impact."
"There is nothing like needlework to bring calm and focus."
"The Lord sitteth above the water flood, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught, I will make you fishers of men."
"They were small and perhaps insignificant on their own, but placed together they made up a life of sorts."
"A woman shouldn’t be [alone]. She needs a man to protect her. Otherwise anything can happen."
"I am tired. I am so very tired. I’ve been tired since 1916."
"I want to rebel meaningfully, not unconsciously."
"I am ready, and we will never have this chance again."
"I shall be having a baby in February. Would you prefer I leave now or in January?"