The Mayfair Bookshop Quotes

“Change is never easy for anyone. And yet we do not ever remain the same, do we? Every moment, every hour, of every day of our lives is a stumble from one variation of our existence to the next.
Constantly revolving, one can find it hard to adjust. Difficult to put one foot in front of the other without tripping over one's own well-polished shoes.
Deciphering whether the change was good, or better still, deciding that it must be good - or rather ignoring the unacceptableness - was a strength I possessed.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“If war taught me anything at all, it is this: time is short and not at all wasted on the pursuit of happiness.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“Grooves etched around my eyes and lines around my mouth suggested I was a woman who laughed unceasingly. That was the thing about me...I was very good at covering up my sorrows with a laugh or smile.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“destination. They sought relief from violence, murder. They’d been accepted into France, only to be shoved behind the barbed-wire fences of an internment camp for “their” safety. Nearly two hundred thousand souls were at Perpignan. The conditions there claimed four hundred lives a day. People who survived the treacherous journey only to die of typhoid, cholera, starvation and exhaustion.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“Perpignan’s surroundings are enchanting with long-limbed, wild trees draping over a gently lolling blue-green river, and rose-colored brick streets, lined with buildings cut neatly from a fairy tale. A place where I might go on holiday. Shop and lunch and drink wine until dusk with friends like you. How out of place, and how much drearier the camp looks with such a spot as its backdrop. It seems surreal, I tell you.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“Who would have ever guessed my favorite spot to quote Hugo would be in a bookshop drinking brandy. I mean, darling, an evening at Heywood's these days tops the Ritz."
I clinked his glass with mine to acknowledge the elaborate compliment. "Don't forget to buy a book on your way out. This club may not have annual dues, be we do have bills all the same," I teased.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“I'd say it was the Mitford charm, but the thing about us Mitfords is that our allure is only good when the mark is either half-drunk or completely affected.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“As much as I tried to act French about it, watching my husband flaunt his mistress was a bit much for even me to take. I wasn't my sister Diana, whose poise in the face of her lover's lovers should have earned her an award of some kind. How does she do it?
I stood, smoothing my hand down my flat abdomen as I walked to the cellaret. That level plane of my belly was another endless source of torment. How could life quicken inside of me when Prod planted his seed in another garden?”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“Our honeymoon had officially ended, though I may wager it was over before it began.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“The grouches thought us wicked, an absolute disgrace to all the rules of the older generation. We threw extravagant parties to excess, laughed a little too vulgarly, traipsed about London in costume on elaborate treasure hunts, drank an unhealthy amount of champagne and showed entirely too much ankle and leg. In short, the Great War was over, and we were determined to enjoy ourselves.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop

“Being from upper-class stock didn't always bode well for pin money. While Diana now lived a life of divine luxury with her new, wealthy husband - heir to the Guinness fortune - our parents had always kept a tight rein on what meager means their noble titles afforded them. We were cash poor always, to the point where our mother sold eggs from the family hens.”
― Eliza Knight, The Mayfair Bookshop