Havelock looks and sounds like he has a favorite Bronte sister.

His book: The dragon can't dance by Earl Lovelace surprises me because Havelock looks and sounds like he has a favorite [sic] Bronte sister.

M. James, The Disappearers (2026), 19-20

If the Reformation made a mess in a great many matters, there is plenty of mess also in Rome and the East

So I stick on in the Church of England remembering that if the Reformation, as well as other influences, made a mess in a great many matters, there is plenty of mess also in Rome and the East. ... Stone believed the English mess, for all its muddle, at least did not claim to be anything other than provisional, and that this humble truthfulness was itself a Catholic virtue. Freedom from the dogmatic anathematisation of half of Christendom was something Stone valued enough to remain in his mother Church, for all its mess.

D. Stone, cited in T. Plant, 'Darwell Stone and Anglican identity: an appeal to the East', Sobornost 48:1 (2026), 31

The play is in itself inherently improbable and in parts excessively coarse and painful

King Lear it shall be, though the play is in itself inherently improbable and in parts excessively coarse and painful. But they may do it in modern clothes, or in the dark, or all standing on stepladders. You never know. King Lear it shall be.

A. Thirkell, High rising (1933), 177-8 

Obviously none of those assistant-masters’ wives could rise above a suburban tennis club

‘I can’t think why it is that headmasters and men who are destined to be house-masters marry the right kind of wife and the others don’t. I mean, without undue modesty, I make a fairly good headmaster’s wife, and if Bill were in any other profession he needn’t be ashamed of me. But obviously none of those assistant-masters’ wives could rise above a suburban tennis club. It’s very depressing and mysterious.’ 

‘I’ve often noticed the same thing about the clergy,’ said Laura. ‘Archdeacons and bishops and such like have really good wives; often they are Honourables, or even Lady Agneses. But just look at the wives of the inferior clergy. There must be an unseen providence to see that men destined for eminence in the Church, or the scholastic world, should have what one can only call, looking at you, Amy, suitable helpmeets. Or is it helpmates? People write to the newspapers every now and then about it, but I can never remember what they say.’

A. Thirkell, High rising (1933), 114-5

To go to church on social grounds was perhaps a little better than not going at all

'we must go to church once in the holidays, or the vicar would be disappointed,' said Laura, feeling that to go to church on social grounds was perhaps a little better than not going at all. Besides one ought to have a Church Service as part of ones background on account of the beauty of the language.  

A. Thirkell, High rising (1933), 102

The Reformation had caused a set-back of some hundred years in domestic sanitation

her attention was entirely absorbed by George Knox, who was laying down a theory that the Reformation had caused a set-back of some hundred years in domestic sanitation.

... 'not religion - drains, drains, my dear Laura. If there was one thing the world before the Reformation thoroughly understood, it was Drains. Look at Norman castles. Show me the Norman castle you can explore without falling down a thirty-foot shaft at every corner.'

 A. Thirkell, High rising (1933), 87 & 89

For the first time, probably, since the age of the Atlantic slave trade, the majority of black Britons or their parents have come to this country directly from Africa

As well as losing sight of the more distant past our focus on the post-war story has meant that, at times, we have been slow to recognize more recent changes. Since the start of the 1980s Britain has undergone a second great wave of black migration, one that has largely gone unnoticed. This new influx lacked a single iconic moment, comparable to the docking of the Windrush in 1948, and it took place in the far less romantic settings of Gatwick and Heathrow airports, but it was in those great hubs of modern air travel that thousands of Africans arrived – despite ever stricter immigration laws. At the turn of the century West Indians still made up the majority of the UK’s black population. But, as the 2011 census revealed, between 2001 and 2011 the British African population doubled, through both migration and natural increase. For the first time, probably, since the age of the Atlantic slave trade, the majority of black Britons or their parents have come to this country directly from Africa, rather than from somewhere in the Americas.

D. Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History (2016), loc. 9,380