A Child in Occupied Land Quotes

“The journey was tedious and uneventful, except that the couple bickered at one another as though they were auditioning for most miserable anniversary of the year. ‘The police are very hot on spotting West Berlin number-plates, and you’re exceeding the speed limit, Dear.’ ‘No I’m not, Dear.  It’s the angle that you’re looking at the speedometer.’ ‘You should have taken the left fork, Dear.’ ‘No, Dear!  You need to turn the map upside down.”
― Mike Newman, A Child in Occupied Land

“Can you keep a secret?’ ‘What?’ ‘Cross your heart and hope to die.’ ‘Go on.  What secret?’ but my sister wouldn’t part with her classified intelligence until I had performed the full rites. ‘I know where we can get something else to eat.’  Perhaps she had found a magic way way to change slices of parsnip into marzipan. ‘Where?’ I asked. ‘Cross your heart and hope to die.’ ‘Do I have to?’ I sighed, but I repeated the ritual; starvation concentrates the mind.”
― Mike Newman, A Child in Occupied Land

“our breakfast of parsnip-sludge,”
― Mike Newman, A Child in Occupied Land