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The Crossing Places

Book by Elly Griffiths · 12 quotes · Sky, Anxiety, Art

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All Sky Anxiety Art Beach Big Sky Book Club Books Collins Cooking Cosy Drama Excitement Family History Home Husband Ian Rankin Interior John Martin Likes

The Crossing Places Quotes

“Her students are so keen, waylaying her after lectures to talk about Lindow Man and Boxgrove Man and whether women really would have played a significant role in prehistoric society. Look around you, she wants to shout, we don’t always play a significant role in this society. Why do you think a gang of grunting hunter-gatherers would have been any more enlightened than us?”

Women History Women Empowerment Womens

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“The stairs lead directly into the sitting room: sanded wooden floor, comfortable faded sofa, large flat-screen TV, books covering every available surface. Archaeology books mostly but also murder mysteries, cookery books, travel guides, doctor-nurse romances. Ruth is nothing if not eclectic in her tastes. She has a particular fondness for children’s books about ballet or horse-riding, neither of which she has ever tried. The kitchen barely has room for a fridge and a cooker but Ruth, despite the books, rarely cooks.”

Home Space Books Cooking Cosy Interior

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“God, Ruth. You do live, don’t you?’ Ruth doesn’t reply. She thinks she detects a tinge of envy in Peter’s voice for her supposedly exciting life. She wants to tell him that, far from being excited, she actually feels lonely and rather scared. She looks at him, wondering how honest she wants to be.”

Loneliness Drama Anxiety Perception Excitement

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“Remember the days when her mother was not just someone who annoyed her on the phone, but the most important person in the world. The litany of motherhood.”

Family Parenting Motherhood

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“…she planned to go to bed early with the new Rebus, a surprisingly thoughtful Christmas present from Simon.”

Reading Reading In Bed Ian Rankin Rebus

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“They are silent for a moment, watching the waves come closer and closer to their feet. There is always the temptation, thinks Ruth, to stay just a little bit too long, to stand on the water’s edge until the spray actually gets you. And it’s not always the wave you expect, the spectacular breakers hurling themselves against the shore. Sometimes it’s the sneaky waves, the ones that come from nowhere, sucking the sand away from your feet; sometimes it’s these waves that take you by surprise.”

Sea Solitude Beach Wilderness Waves

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“Peter is suffering from an attack of nostalgia, she knows the symptoms. She mustn’t join in otherwise she’ll be swept away too, drowning in a quicksand of the past.”

Past Memories Nostalgia

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“Ruth likes the Vast paintings by John Martin, the Vatican, the Norfolk sky.”

Art Sky Likes Paintings John Martin Big Sky

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“…living in London you never get to see the sky. There’s so much sky here.”

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“It won’t bring Lucy and Scarlet back but it will, at least, mean that justice has been done. The words have a cold, biblical ring that surprises him, but when you come down to it that is what police work is all about. Protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty.”

Police Policing Police Work

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“What the Sand gets, the Sand keeps forever. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone”

Sand Collins The Moonstone

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“The wife belongs to a book club. All they do is moan about their husbands. They never talk about the bloody books at all.”

Marriage Wife Husband Book Club

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