Mary Wesley

“I found out only recently that we were making an index of enemy code signs.”

“A lot of people stop short. They don't actually die but they say, 'Right I'm old, and I'm going to retire,' and then they dwindle into nothing. They go off to Florida and become jolly boring.”

“My first husband would never make up his mind in less than five years, so I used to get him to think that whatever course of action needed to be taken was his idea. Then he'd go right ahead.”

“Each marriage has to be judged separately, and we never know what's going on in another person's marriage.”

“I don't write for any particular kind of person.”

“I was sent to a finishing school, which didn't last long when mother found out how badly chaperoned we were. Then I 'came out' before going to a domestic science school.”

“Looking back, I understand that I was teaching myself to write.”

“You know what it's like to persuade a pigheaded child to do something they don't want to. If they hear the same suggestion from someone else, they'll go right off and do it.”

“It seemed sensible to move to a market town where I could walk everywhere.”