The Birthday Boys Quotes

“It wasn't all misery. On one of our halts we lay spreadeagled on the ice and stared up at a sky blazing with the glory of the most wonderful aurora I'd ever witnessed. I groaned beneath the splendour of those silken curtains, yellow, green, and orange, billowing at the window of the heavens.”
― Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys

“I sense a space around him. He has a manner of eyeing people, even if he's standing face to face, as though he sees them from a distance.”
― Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys

“I left him and went up on deck to look out at the slithering city, its glitter of street lamps fizzy under the rain. There’s something wrong about a ship in dock, something pathetic, like a bird fluttering in a spill of oil. The Nova was tethered to her berth by ropes and chains, caught in a pool of greasy water. I could feel her shifting under my feet, tugging to be free.”
― Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys

“This time I didn’t bother to apologise to Bill. One grows sick of being thought in the wrong…”
― Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys