Philip

“Charm. The most insidious weapon in all the human armoury.”
― Josephine Tey, A Shilling for Candles

“I judged it better to do your breakfast myself. How do you like your eggs? Sunny side up?” “If you really want to know, I like them broken when they are half cooked and rummelled up with a fork.” “Panaché!” Marta said, delighted. “That is one I have not met before. We are growing intimate, aren’t we! I am probably the only woman alive except your housekeeper who knows that you like your breakfast eggs streaky. Or—am I?” “Well, there’s a woman in a village near Amiens that I once confessed it to. But I doubt if she would remember.” “She is probably making a fortune out of the idea. Eggs à l’Anglaise probably has a totally new meaning in France nowadays. Brown bread or white?” “Brown, please.”
― Josephine Tey, To Love and Be Wise

“When something baffled him he found that if he kept on worrying it, he got no further, and lost his sense of proportion in the process. So when he came to a dead stop he indulged in what he called “shutting his eyes” for a little, and when he “opened” them again he habitually found a new light on things that revealed unexpected angles and made the old problem a totally new proposition. There”
― Josephine Tey, The Man in the Queue

“Look, Tad, you're quite sure that you have no idea, even in the back of your mind, where Bill could have been staying?" "I haven't got a back to my mind. I have just a small, narrow space in front where I keep all that's useful to me. A few telephone numbers and a prayer or two.”
― Josephine Tey, The Singing Sands