Murder Before Evensong Quotes
"Like Moses and the footsore of Israel, we too must learn to live in hope, to look to the future, and to find in our present circumstances the resources to meet its challenge."
"Moses averts mutiny by striking a rock, and a cataract of water miraculously pours forth, so his thirsty and restive people may drink; a resourceful tactic that suited Daniel’s purposes too."
"Those hungry for eternal life would hurry, you might think, to accept so generous an offer."
"Daniel worked his way down the line, doling out their Incarnate Lord."
"He loved the threshold of night, when he felt closest to his parishioners, and to those in particular need of his prayers."
"It did not seem to matter if Daniel had been away for a week or a quarter of an hour, a loud and dissonant duet of barks was raised by his dachshunds."
"Sometimes we must stay the same or die, Rector."
"The profession of parson is congenial to dogs. Parsons work from home; country parsons, even in leaner times, have gardens."
"Audrey Clement was indeed there. Her personality, powerful in her prime, was no less powerful in age, rather rising in proportion to the diminution of her physical strength."
"They had made themselves indispensable, doing the work round the estate that no one else wanted to do."
"Good lad. How’s your grandfather? ‘Lying low, the lucky bugger.’"
"Nathan had grown skilled in these activities, but he had not followed his grandfather into the rarer specialism of wart-charming."
"The big painting over the first fireplace from the library end of the state drawing room is the 23rd Baron, Lord Gilbert de Floures."
"Try not to swear, Nathan. And perhaps leave out drowning kittens."
"The once customary reverence was fading fast."
"She is the head of state, and without her assent nothing can be done, but she acts on the advice of ministers."
"I’m actually working on the secrets of estate carpentry at the moment, rather detailed, laborious and time-consuming work."
"‘I’m not hungry. Do you mind if I pass?’ ‘Not at all, it’ll be better tomorrow.’"
"My mother said – I never should – play with gypsies in the wood."
"Shy and awkward, he joined the Young Farmers’ Club and discovered an aptitude for practical matters."
"To be at the centre of a scandal too would be intolerable."
"If things grew at the same rate all year as they grow in May it would be a jungle out there."
"The meticulous process of information gathering, supervised by DS Vanloo, ground slow and small."
"I’ll eat my hat if he is. Combat in Champton tends to be more genteel."
"‘It’s not the first murder here,’ said Daniel."
"You can’t hide forever from the consequences of your actions."
"We are imperfect people called to perfection, so get used to failure."
"You’re made for it. And I wonder if it has made you rather the detective, sniffing out corruption like one of the dogs."
"Not from me. I would rather leave things to decay undisturbed."
"Your great-grandfather died in his forties leaving your great-grandmother with thirteen children to feed."
"It was the cure for drink. He was put into the county asylum by his father, and the treatment was a form of hydrotherapy."
"You embrace it, Theo, through living the precarious life of an actor. And you recoil from it, Daniel, you fear it."
"And let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace."
"May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life."
"The reverses of fortune. The collapse of a comfortable world."
"A part of her was always the little girl who had lost her father."
"In the old days when the head of the family died we would keep vigil in the old chapel."
"It’s why you’re a parson, it’s why you love stationery."
"I don’t know why. But for someone like your great-grandfather, already ruined by drink, then to be submitted to this so-called treatment."
"And anyone who’s been in service knows how dangerous loose lips can be."
"Even here, in the gentle glory of this English idyll, were reminders of the trouble that had come upon them."
"You don’t just leave that behind, it’s with you for your entire life."
"The world for them was primarily a smellscape, interpreted first through odour rather than sound or sight."
"The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want; he makes me down to lie in pastures green; he leadeth me the quiet waters by."
"The passing bell rang from the tower of St Mary’s and as it pealed clouds appeared and brought the lovely early morning to an end."
"Sometimes we have to step back to see what’s obvious. Sometimes our preoccupation with what is in front of us means we miss the big picture."
"We live in the light of Christ, a light which all the darkness of the world cannot extinguish."
"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance."
"Sometimes our preoccupation with what is in front of us means we miss the big picture."
"Nature and faith both proclaim that life goes on, and no matter how heavy the loss, green shoots will come, and with them a new mood of hope."
"A lifelong hurt, a secret, the shame, all about to be discovered. And her son. Jesus, what will Hervé think when this comes out?"
"As dawn rose, the darkness of Good Friday was banished, finally, decisively, by the light of the resurrected Christ."
"Bit more than a sister, Dad. I do find it extraordinary that they trained her to be a killer."