A Particular Man Quotes

“She hurries out of the hammering rain into the puddled shelter of St Pancras. As arranged, he's waiting outside WH Smith, and her heart jerks like a bad dog on a lead.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“She likes his wide, easy smile, the texture of his skin, the thick fair hair on his arms, almost like fur, the wholesome soapy smell of him. And she likes his height. He's taller by far than any British man she's been with; it's excessive, unnecessary, gorgeous. Invisibly, she sighs. Of course, she always knew it was temporary: that's the deal with G.I.'s.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“You can always rely on Daddy to state the bleeding obvious; it used to madden her and Edgar, but now she finds it soothing.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“Neville's a pleasant sort of standby when there's nothing more exciting on the go. A safe, attractive, reliable chap. He's respectful, never having tried to get her into bed which, if she was a better sort of person, she might appreciate.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“To think how thrilled she was when she took the job to have to sign the Official Secrets Act. It seemed so deliciously cloak and dagger, and she thought she'd become privy to important national secrets, or at least something interesting.  But it's all piffle, baffling as hell and twice as boring.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“Aida watches Dennis open his tobacco pouch and stuff his pipe. As a child she was entranced by the process, and the glamorous stink of it, the special words: flake, shag, shank, dottle. He told her that each pipe had its own ghost, which is the taste when you suck it, empty and cold. Sometimes he let her taste the ghost.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“He gazes at the tree's roots tangled with broken gravestones; root and stone merge like something in the jungle.How mixed up everything is. Memories mix and merge till he hardly knows what's true. Sometimes he thinks Edgar kissed him; sometimes he knows it never happened.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“The door knocker's a knocking fist, or it's meant to be, but it makes him think of a punch in the gob.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“He slid the ring onto my wedding finger. It fitted perfectly. A good omen? I tipped my hand this way and that, admiring the extravagant sparkle, and kept my truth buttoned all buttoned up.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“During the film (long, miserable) he takes her hand and squeezes rhythmically as if he's milking a cow.  She's distracted by wondering if he has ever, in fact, milked a cow.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“I lost God in the jungle. Before that, I had the normal sort of watery English Christianity. Out there some men got more religious, others lost it. What kind of god would allow this? etc.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man

“Tiny Eleanor in her black coat, is dinkily perfect, like a woman carved on a mechanical clock, nodding, lifting her hand, in jerky greeting. Her eyes might slice jealously through any gaze between Clem and Corin, but they can't sever the meaning of those gazes.”
― Lesley Glaister, A Particular Man