Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘Bilbo took out the envelope, but just as he was about to set it by the clock, his hand jerked back, and the packet fell on the floor. Before he could pick it up, the wizard stooped and seized it and set it in its place. A spasm of anger passed swiftly over the hobbit’s face again. Suddenly it gave way to a look of relief and a laugh.’

“Elves and Dragons! I says to him. Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you, I says to him. And I might say it to others,”

‘Canterbury Cathedral’s east end was the most prestigious example of early gothic architecture in England. Its impact and influence can be felt across many of the large/scale architectural projects built in the century following its completion. These include nearby great churches, such as Rochester Cathedral, but also ones located further afield: Chichester Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral’

‘“If you want a new direction for your life," she said, "then for heaven’s sake, just pick something out and do it. The world is your oyster, Colin. You’re young, wealthy, and you’re a man." Penelope’s voice turned bitter, resentful. "You can do anything you want."’

‘Colin grinned. "Do you think she’ll have biscuits?"
Penelope rolled her eyes. "I know she’ll have biscuits."
"Good," he said, taking off at a lope and half dragging her with him. "I do love my family, but I really just go for the food.”’

‘As London’s prosperity grew, so did its population. Estimates suggest that from 1100 to 1200 the number of inhabitants roughly doubled from possibly around 20,000 to over 40,000, making it one of the largest cities in western Europe. With this influx came a demand for space, resulting in the building of new roads and houses and pushing the limits of the city further north.’

‘We were surprised when Mama’s dog Lily, a little red Dachshund, ran out to greet us, barking and wagging her tail. All this time and there she was! She seemed to recognize us, and when we reached out to pet her, she licked our hands. I guess Jewish dogs were not taken to concentration camps, only Jewish people.’

5 stars just for how Violet acts at the end.

I swear Violet (Lady Bridgerton) is the best thing about this series, she really does love her children

‘“If I equal the deeds of my father, men can ask no more,” the child recited. Katharine could have wept for him, remembering the carefree days of her own childhood at Rye House, something he would never know. What a burden to place on his young shoulders. Could learning to emulate his father not wait until he was a little older?’

‘Later, we found out that Dr. Mengele purposely gave some twins dangerous, life-threatening diseases such as scarlet fever, then followed them with injections of something else to see if it cured the disease... Many of these details I learned forty years later, such as the twin teenage boys who had some of their private parts cut off in Mengele’s quest to see if he could turn them into girls.’

‘He had beheaded two wives, divorced two others and lost one in childbed - not to mention all the suffering that had been inflicted on those five unfortunate souls. Maybe some had deserved what they got, but Katharine had learned enough of court politics now to know that there were factions poised to bring down a queen they disapproved of and shove another in her place.’

‘Because of those matching burgundy dresses, because we were identical twins so easily spotted in the crowd of grimy, exhausted Jewish prisoners, Miriam and I had been chosen. Soon we would come face to face with Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor known as the Angel of Death. It was he would selected those on the platform who were to live and those who would die. But we did not know that yet.’

‘Amy’s brother had tried to have her case reopened. He had been sure that foul play had ended her life - that is until the Council and the men that were on it made him change his mind.’

‘She burned with hatred for them and for the faith they were defending. Would Christ condone their threatening behaviour, their refusal to understand that His way was not violence? This rebellion was meant to be a peaceful protest, but, so far, it had looked anything but. More and more, she was beginning to see the light. Religion must be reformed. Why defend an old order that was rotten to the core?’

‘In fact deaths from falling down stairs are more common than you would like to think. It is estimated that someone falls down the stairs in the UK every ninety seconds and while most accidents are not fatal, in 2015 787 deaths in England and Wales were caused by such a fall. Hitting your head is also one of the most common injuries sustained from such an accident.’

‘When he’d visited them two nights ago, Will had said that, when the ambitious Seymour family had united with Cromwell and others to bring Anne down, Jane had been involved in the conspiracy. How deeply involved no one could say. It had made Katharine wonder what lay behind the new Queen’s quiet exterior. Perhaps she was playing a long game. She must care about the religion she was reputed to hold dear.’

‘Dudley didn’t often have time for his wife. The court and the queen commanded his attendance almost constantly but that did not mean that he forgot about Amy. He tried to visit and sent gifts of clothes, money and jewels. Elizabeth was wildly jealous of any of her favourite’s relationships and commanded Dudley to say he did nothing with his wife. It was not overtly stated but Amy was not welcome at court’

‘She, being a woman, was unlikely to be asked to take the oath, yet she would do so if required. She had heard too much about the Church needing reform to accept in tenets unquestioningly, as she had in childhood and youth. She found herself astride the fence, as it were, unable to shake off the faith Mother had instilled in her, yet fascinated by new ideas she was hearing at every turn.’

‘On top of them all, she laid her most cherished possession, a fine cloth given to her at her baptism by the Queen for whom she had been named, and who had herself embroidered on it, within a circle of gold, the initials K.I.P. - which, Mother had explained, stood for ‘Katherine, Infanta, Princess’ - and the motto Plus Oultre. That meant ‘Further Beyond’, and was the motto of Spain’

Proof copy

‘The premises where Richard was housed had cost Fastolf £1,650 (over £10 million today) and the moat was a quarter of a mile in circumference. It had a drawbridge and stone causeway, very typical of the transitional homes of the aristocracy and gentry, which were morphing from forbidding defensive castles to welcoming family homes. It had a bakehouse, a larder house (for food), two granaries and a garden’

‘The Banqueting House, built by Inigo Jones in 1622, formed part of Whitehall Palace and it was here on 30 January 1649 that Charles I was executed. The palace suffered a fire in 1691, but a second fire completely destroyed it in 1698. The stairs seen here and Henry’s wine cellar are all that remain of this significant royal palace.’

Audiobook version, not on here.

‘Grief, not stupidity, Louis. There is a difference … small, but vital. The battery that burying ground survives on... And it isn’t just grief it feeds on. Sanity. It’s eaten your sanity. The flaw is only the inability to accept, not uncommon. It’s cost you your wife and it’s almost surely cost you your best friend as well as your son. This is it.’

‘“The thing we saw that night, lookin’ up into that red sun … that was a monster. Maybe it was a zombie, or a dybbuk, or a demon. Maybe there’s no name for such a thing as that, but the Micmacs would have known what it was, name or no.”
“What?” Louis said numbly.
“Something that had been touched by the Wendigo,”’

‘safety and security of the king while travelling across the country was paramount and at every place he stayed, these portable locks were personally fitted to the door of the king’s bedchamber by Romaynes. Sturdy and robust, they would form an adequate barrier against anyone intent on harming or killing the king. Two keyholes are concealed behind a central sliding plate, decorated with the arms of Henry VIII’

‘he was aware he had crossed a line, back when Rachel had asked him if he had gone over to Jud’s last night and he told her he had. In his mind he suddenly heard Jud Crandall saying: The soil of a man’s heart is stonier, Louis … a man grows what he can … and he tends it.’

‘Henry sought craftsmen who had worked for Maximilian I in Flanders to build his armour. Peter Fevers was paid £15 (valued at £10,000 in 2019) for the construction of the ‘Silvered and Engraved Armour’ in August 1515. The armour, covered completely with silver and with a gilt skirt around the base, was engraved by a Belgian craftsman.’

Maybe I’ll change my mind when I have my own kids, but I agree with Louis really. We hide death and all that from children which just makes them more curious, as if it isn’t a normal thing that happens, when it should be something that is open for discussion to some extent.