Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead Quotes

“Two people were swimming in the sea
One was alive and the other dead. See.”
― Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

“She came to a little wrecked pleasure-steamer, which had become embedded in the mud several summers ago and which no one had bothered to remove. It had been a vulgar, tubby little boat when it used to steam through the water with its handful of holiday-makers, giving shrill whistles at every bend and causing a wash that disturbed the fishermen as they sat peacefully on the banks; but, now it lay sideways in the mud with its gaudy paint all bleached, it was almost beautiful.”
― Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

“Afterwards they went down the garden together to pick peas for supper, and to dream their dreams in the summer dusk.”
― Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

“I’ve been writing a poem,” she said, “but there are only two lines and I don’t think they rhyme.” And she read out loud— “Two people were swimming in the sea One was alive and the other dead. See.”
― Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

“After a time Emma opened the picnic basket and they ate honey sandwiches with ants on them and drank the queer tea that always comes from a thermos.”
― Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

“As the day went on the hens, locked in their black shed, became depressed and hungry and one by one they fell from their perches and committed suicide in the dank water below, leaving only the cocks alive. The sorrowful sitting hens, all broody, were in another dark, evil-smelling shed and they died too. They sat on their eggs in a black broody dream until they were covered in water. They squarked a little; but that was all. For a few moments just their red combs were visible above the water, and then they disappeared.”
― Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead