Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night Quotes

“It is what often happens in the establishment. Inconvenient truths are left buried. If you don't ask too may questions of a gentlemen then you won't be disappointed."

"And this is what makes us British?"

"It is our face to the world," Sidney replied. "Many of us are civilised, charming and perfectly genuine people. Others have developed their reserve into a form of refined deceit. It's why people find the British so intriguing, Georgie. The line between the gentleman and the assassin can be so very thin.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“The “wonder” felt by the shepherds at the Nativity, or the disciples at Pentecost; that sense of amazement when we experience something that is so far beyond our comprehension and yet it is still revealed to us in all its glory as a gift from the infinite. I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means: the more we content ourselves with the narrow confines of our existence, the less we wonder.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means: the more we content ourselves with the narrow confines of our existence, the less we wonder. It’s like the word “awful”. Now it’s something bad, but previously it was close to wonder. People were filled with awe.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“We can’t live in a country where there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“I think we’ve lost our awareness of what “wonder” really means:”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische; Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“She was used to the discomfort caused by her accident of birth and it was often the first impression she made in England. She remembered her arrival almost 10 years ago; how her every interlocutor would react with disbelief, mistrust, and then mainly, but not always, with a recovered sense of decency and fairness (…)”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“That’s the ABC of crime investigation, Sidney. Assume nothing. Believe nobody. Check everything. And there’s also D – for dosh. It always finds its way in there somehow.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night: Grantchester Mysteries 2

“to photograph promise, and the moment before full beauty. Then you have expectation; drama.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“to find stillness in the middle of movement.”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night

“I was wondering about the origin of the word hat trick. Where does it come from? Cricket doesn’t have much to do with hats, does it?’ ‘I think it was at Sheffield’s Hyde Park ground in 1858. An All-England cricket team was engaged in a cricket match against the Hallam XI. During the match, H.H. Stephenson of the All-England XI took three wickets in three balls. As was customary at the time for rewarding outstanding sporting feats, a collection was made. The proceeds were used to buy a white hat, which was duly presented to the bowler.’ ‘And was Stephenson grateful?’ ‘History is, I fear, silent on this important subject, Geordie. But Mr Ali’s hat trick certainly made our own little contribution to cricketing statistics.’ ‘Although”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night: Grantchester Mysteries 2

“The game created a parallel world, Sidney thought. It was drama; it was excitement; it was a metaphor for the vicissitudes of life. It was also quintessentially English: democratic (there were teams with all levels of ability), communal (the cricket ‘square’ was often at the centre of the village green), and convivial (the game was full of eccentric characters.) It was the representation of a nation’s cuisine, with its milky tea, cucumber sandwiches, Victoria sponge and lashings of beer. It was also beautiful to watch, with fifteen men, dressed in white and moving on green, creating geometrical patterns that looked as if they had been choreographed by a divine choreographer. As”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night: Grantchester Mysteries 2

“But then, he continued, the idea of duality was also at the heart of Christianity. You had to be both a man and a Christian, and if there was ever a conflict between the two then it was his duty as a priest to put his acquired identity, as a man of faith, above his own essential nature. Sidney”
― James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night: Grantchester Mysteries 2