The Cuckoos of Batch Magna Quotes

“It’s age. It makes misers of us,” he said dolefully. “Counting out our lives in small change from a thinning purse.”
― Peter Maughan, The Cuckoos of Batch Magna

“Humphrey’s mouth opened and shut a couple of times on things he wanted to say, wanted to ask, and then he said, “Why? Why did you lie about it, Mom?”
Shelly flapped a hand at him. “Because, because.”
Because she wanted him to believe that he could do it. Wanted him to think that if his dad could do it, so could he. That he didn’t always have to be looking on, another loser at the feast. Because she didn’t think he could do it, not without help. And lies were all she had to offer.”
― Peter Maughan, The Cuckoos of Batch Magna

“They’ll have Donald Duck and Goofy and the gang on the wallpaper ready for the first arrival in the nursery, the boy who would be conker champion, and the signed baseball bat and mitt, and his granddad’s fighter plane suspended from the ceiling. And he’ll coach him in baseball, and Phineas in cricket, and Owain will teach him to fish, and later shoot. Phineas would be one godparent, he’d decided, and Annie and Owain, and Jasmine, and the Commander and Priny, and Miss Wyndham and John Beecher, and Tom Parr, there’ll be plenty to go round, enough new trees over the years.
And they’ll grow up, their brood, like Jasmine’s and the Owens’, and there’ll be all the Hall and the grounds to chase each other round in, and the river to explore, and picnics on it, and trips to its hidden places, and all that English countryside, and the half that was in Wales, to play in.
Humphrey clamped his cigar in his mouth, and scattered sheep feeding by a field gate with a couple more blasts on the horn, singing his way down Batch Valley.”
― Peter Maughan, The Cuckoos Of Batch Magna

“And he was different, this new dad. The other dad, the old dad, well, he admired him. He was a hotshot and go-getter, and a decent guy, so what’s not to admire? But he liked this new dad. To Humphrey he made much more sense. Sure, he’d have probably asked what the hell his son thought he was doing, how the hell was he going to live, and all that, like dads do. But he’d have soon kidded him out of that. His dad, his new dad, would have done just what he was doing. He knew that now. He had learned it just in time.
And now, as he saw it, they were doing it together. Travelling together, both free now.”
― Peter Maughan, The Cuckoos Of Batch Magna

“Bound to happen sooner or later, I suppose,” the Commander said equably, tamping his pipe down. “It’s the times, my boy, the times. O tempora o mores. The new order. It goes under different names but always calls itself progress, and we are in its way.”
― Peter Maughan, The Cuckoos Of Batch Magna

“Beati qui durant. ‘Blessed are those who endure.”
― Peter Maughan, The Cuckoos of Batch Magna