The Frozen Lake Quotes

“his hand shaken by Saul, sleek and with that English air of plummy prosperity. A southern look, he felt; northerners had their own aura of wealth and success, but it was less smooth, lacked the polish of a Saul.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Never marry a younger son,’ had been one of her own mother’s maxims. ‘If you fancy a younger son, ask to meet his older brother.’ ‘What if the eldest son is married, Mummy?’ ‘Look elsewhere. One man is much like another when it comes to marriage. As long as he’s kind and has money, you’ll be happy. A woman’s happiness is bound up in her home and family and social life, her husband’s not nearly as important to her as you young girls seem to think.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Roll on the Brave New World, she could do with a dose of Huxley’s happiness drug. What did he call it? Soma, that was it. Pills to make you sleep at night, pills to take away the sting of the day.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“driving through the sweep gate to the Hall, the stone Grindley griffins perched on either side atop the gateposts. Hal had once suggested that a pair of lavatory seats would be a better emblem for the family; they hadn’t found this amusing. Grindleys as a whole resented any humour directed at the source of their wealth.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Perdita, do you really want toast as well?’ ‘Yes,’ said Perdita, spreading a slice with a thick layer of butter. ‘I’ve got to keep up my strength for being out in the snow. Otherwise I might expire from frostbite and exposure, and be found a pale and interesting corpse in the ice.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“However warm the overcoats and furs, nothing could subdue the arctic chill of York Minster on a December day.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Fiona, put your hat straight. Mathilda, where are your gloves? Deirdre, how many times do I have to tell you not to stand on one leg?’ ‘My stockings make me itch,’ said the unfortunate Deirdre, who had been rubbing her shin violently with the edge of her sensible brown leather shoe. ‘Deirdre! Mentioning underwear in public, whatever are you thinking of?”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“I have to put these in the hamper and get my coat and hat. Will you wait here?’ ‘I shan’t budge,’ he said. ‘I never saw so many girls in my life, they’re terrifying.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“he was completely swamped in the wave of schoolgirls pouring out of the front rows. Polished brown shoes of every size trod on his feet, hockey-trained muscles shoved him out of the way, firm elbows dug into his sides;”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Outside the steamed-up windows of the wooden building, snow pattered down in the darkness, unnoticed.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Sadly, love comes at no one’s bidding,”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“He allowed himself to be escorted to a table where a handful of people were already seated; they gave him the confiding smiles of those immune to seasickness.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“grainy news pictures of a rally in Berlin. ‘Good marchers, you’ve got to say that for them,’ said a woman in the row behind. ‘Some of that discipline would do the layabouts in this country a bit of good.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“She had expected the mood to pass, that in a little while she would want to be back among her set - but it hadn’t happened. The liveliness seemed brittle, their vivacity aimless and empty, the round of parties and night clubs pointless, the sophistication superficial and unsatisfactory.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“inoffensive, with some charm about him, able to take away the loneliness for a few moments of passion and rob the night of its desolation.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“she’d plunged into the restless, messy life of her recent past. Then, she’d scorned friendship; now, she was grateful that there was any aspect of human relationship left that she hadn’t mocked and trampled on.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Christmas. It was stupid. It was the time of year, the tinsel tiresomeness of it all,”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Alix stared down at the yellow mixture without enthusiasm. She didn’t care much for omelettes, but seemed to be eating a lot of them. Food for a solitary life. Other people spent Christmas with their families. It was customary, even if they regretted it every time, and every year swore, never again.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Alix stared down at the yellow mixture without enthusiasm. She didn’t care much for omelettes, but seemed to be eating a lot of them. Food for a solitary life.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“The people you grew up with were the people who taught you what human beings were like.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“Round and round the thoughts went like a gramophone record, the needle digging sharply in the well-worn grooves and producing the same old tune.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“said.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake

“recognized her after all this time. She’s looking fearfully smart, apparently,”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery

“The people you grew up with were the people who taught you what human beings were like. You never knew anyone better than you knew your family. Everyone else you lived with, you came to with an adult’s sensibilities and mind and emotions. And defences. Which wasn’t the same.”
― Elizabeth Edmondson, The Frozen Lake: A Vintage Mystery