The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)

by Alan Bradley

Father always insisted that breakfast was “the body’s banquet,”

To a professional soldier, oddly enough, death was life.

I knew that the “ammon” part of its name came from ammonia, which was named on account of its being first discovered not far from the shrine of the god Ammon in ancient Egypt, where it was found in camel’s urine.

Charles Darwin had once pointed out that the fiercest competition for survival came from one’s own tribe,

To me it seemed a matter of elementary chemistry: I knew that a substance tends to be dissolved by solvents that are chemically similar to it. There was no rational explanation for this; it was simply the way of Nature.

‘The de Luces are all lofty rhubarbs and prickly gooseberries, Mrs. M, whereas your Alf’s a smooth, sweet custard man. I should like you to bake an occasional custard pie to remind us of our haughty ways, and when we turn up our noses at it, why, you must take it home to your Alf as a sweet apology.’

“Everything is always a muddle just before it settles in.