The Inn at the Edge of the World Quotes

“. . to cook well and with imagination you have to be in a cheerful and contented frame of mind, and thus inclined to be generous.”
― Alice Thomas Ellis, The Inn at the Edge of the World

“The reappraisal of a historical figure always presents a difficult problem, particularly when his history is comparatively recent, and during the intervening years other people have given their own version of his character and the events of his life -- some of them nearer to him in time than others, and those not infrequently hostile to the principles and ideas which guided him through his span on earth. The heroes of yesterday are often mocked and reviled by the rising generation, who are trying by all means to free themselves from the restraints of the past.”
― Alice Thomas Ellis, The Inn at the Edge of the World

“Have you noticed my fir?' asked the professor. Jessica emerging from the sparse and anonymous forests of her imaginings, misunderstood him. Fur? Was he speaking of his own body hair? Was he perhaps a werewolf? Or was he drawing attention to some unappreciated mink, ocelot or garment of beaver?

". . . planted it years ago,' he was saying. 'Whipped off the tinsel and the gewgaws, stuck it in the garden and now it's nearly sixty feet tall.'

Ah, though Jessica, reassured - a fir. She could identify Christmas trees.”
― Alice Thomas Ellis, The Inn at the Edge of the World

“There's someone watching me out there,' he said. 'Out in the sea. They have grey eyes -- grey as the sea. They're looking at me.'

"The owl was a baker's daughter,' said Harry.

"Yes, she was,' said Jon, unsurprised at this disclosure.”
― Alice Thomas Ellis, The Inn at the Edge of the World

“Anyway,’ he said, snapping the cap decisively onto his fountain pen, ‘let's go and see what's for tea’. He noticed, surprised, that he had been needing to talk to somebody about what he was doing, and Jessica felt the sleepy gratification of a child who has been told a story.”
― Alice Thomas Ellis, The Inn at the Edge of the World