The Hanging Tree Quotes

“Hyde Park Corner is what happens when a bunch of urban planners take one look at the grinding circle of gridlock that surrounds the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and think—that’s what we want for our town.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“It took the Fire Brigade a day and a half to secure the remains of the house enough to recover Crew Cut’s body, which was described by Dr Jennifer Vaughan as ‘suffering from crush trauma’ and by Dr Walid as ‘mostly flat’.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Now, personally, I'd have been happier driving an armored personnel carrier in through the front door. But since we're the Met, and not the police department of a small town in Missouri, we didn't have one.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Boss,’ I said into my Airwave. ‘It’s getting needlessly metaphysical out here.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Once the telephone had been invented, it was only a matter of time before the police got in on the new technology and, first in Glasgow and then in London, the police box was born. Here a police officer in need of assistance could find a telephone link to Scotland Yard, a dry space to do “paperwork” and, in certain extreme cases, a life of adventure through space and time.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“The word “bollocks” is one of the most beautiful and flexible in the English language. It can be used to express emotional states ranging from ecstatic surprise to weary resignation in the face of inevitable disaster.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“When the Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812, the British, in time-honoured fashion, abandoned their allies. Who were subsequently wiped out by the Americans along with any other tribes that happened to be in the same general vicinity – even those that had actually been allied with the US government during the war. It’s exactly this sort of thing, of course, which gives colonialism a bad name.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“That’s because they don’t know,’ said Tyburn. ‘It’s like economics. Everybody’s got a theory, and some people make it their religion.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“The designer had probably been going for Turkish Bath but had hit Czech Porn Shoot instead.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Bollocks, I thought, or testiculi or possibly testiculos if we were using the accusative.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“With a grunt he levered himself to his feet, causing the chair to bang against the bookcase behind him and set the various objet d’bollocks rattling.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Jeremy Beaumont-Jones had been lucky enough to be born rich. He wasn’t in the mad oligarch class but once you’re past a certain point, the sheer weight of your money sucks in wealth like a financial singularity. If you’re sensible enough not to blow it on race horses, cocaine or musical theatre, then it becomes a perpetual-motion money making machine.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“This book is dedicated to all librarians everywhere—for they are the true keepers of the secret flame and not to be trifled with.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“The majestic equality of the law forbids rich and poor alike from pissing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“I was pleased to see that even back in the glory days of the Folly people left their mugs of tea on their magical textbooks.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“I happened to know for a fact that the whole of Belgravia nick were running a pool on how long I would last and how I would go—the options being death, medical discharge (physical), medical discharge (psychological), indefinite disciplinary suspension, sacked for misconduct, secondment to Interpol and, with just one vote, ascension to a higher plane of existence. I suspected the last one was a bit unlikely.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“even before I got close enough to see the flecks of hazel-gold around the iris I had her pegged as being fayer than the client list of a New Zealand casting agency.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Now, personally, I’d have been happier driving an armored personnel carrier in through the front door. But since we’re the Met, and not the police department of a small town in Missouri, we didn’t have one.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Guleed passed me the completed IIP on Caroline Linden-Limmer and pointed out a note which registered that she’d been granted a Gender Recognition Certificate when she was eighteen – changing her legal gender from male to female. ‘So . . .’ I started, but was cut off by the vast silence emanating from Stephanopoulos behind us. I looked over at Nightingale, who looked quizzically back, and decided to explain the implications later. Surprisingly, when I did, his reaction was outrage that somebody had to apply to a panel to determine what gender they were – he didn’t say it, but I got the strong impression that he felt such panels were intrinsically un-British. Like eugenics legislation, banning the burka and air conditioning.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“The word ‘bollocks’ is one of the most beautiful and flexible in the English language. It can be used to express emotional states ranging from ecstatic surprise to weary resignation in the face of inevitable disaster.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“There’s nothing like having your girlfriend talk in geological time to make you feel insignificant.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Seawoll sat in the executive leather operator’s chair behind the desk wearing a dangerously stretched noddy suit that made him look like the Michelin Man’s slightly deflated older brother.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Then you throw the bloody thing as far as you can, hopefully outside the area of immediate magical effect, where two minutes later it basically phones the Met control room and screams help, help, serious magic shenanigans here – send help – preferably Nightingale.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Then he smiled at me and for that moment, and just that moment, I forgave him everything—everything—because now I knew what joy looked like and I was part of it.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“One Hyde Park squatted next to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel like a stack of office furniture, and with all the elegance and charm of the inside of a photocopier. Albeit a brand new photocopier that doubled as a fax and document scanner.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“The very rich, having fundamentally missed the point of urban living, have long been frustrated by the fact that it’s impossible to squeeze the amenities of a country mansion—car showroom, swimming pool, cinema, servants quarters etc.—into the floor space of your average London terrace. Those without access to trans-dimensional engineering, a key Time Lord discovery, have had to resort to extending their houses into the ground. Thus proving that all that stands between your average rich person and a career in Bond villainy is access to an extinct volcano.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“The word ‘bollocks’ is one of the most beautiful and flexible in the English language. It can be used to express emotional states ranging from ecstatic surprise to weary resignation in the face of inevitable disaster. And”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“So, I wondered what might be special about Lesley,” I said. “Beyond all the things I think are special about her. And, you know what? And this is going to make you laugh . . . the answer is you, isn’t it? Some special knowledge she got while you were in her head. Or maybe a connection to you. Is that it? A connection.” And then a voice, like a breath in my ear. If I had all the wives of wise King Sol, I’d kill them all for my Pretty Pol.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“Nightingale gave a crooked grin I’d never seen before—it made him look all of fourteen. Suddenly I could see him standing on the playing fields of Casterbrook, hands in pockets, school cap pulled down at a rakish angle and looking into a future untroubled by anything more than a couple of world wars, atomic bombs and the loss of everything he held dear.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree

“What’s your favorite period?” I asked. “What’s yours?” he said, dodging the question. “I like the Romans,” I said. “But you’re a policeman,” said Martin Chorley. “Of course you’d like your brutality systemic and carefully licensed.” Actually, I thought, it was the underfloor heating and the regular baths. “I like the Dark Ages,” said Martin Chorley rolling the syllables around in his mouth. “When a man could make himself a myth.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree