Quotes

Reading about Queen Victoria has been a passion of mine since, as a child, I came across Laurence Housman's play 'Happy and Glorious,' with its Ernest Shepard illustrations.

I'm starting to realize that people are beginning to want to know about me. It's a jolly strange idea.

The Royal Family are not like you and me. They live in houses so big that you can walk round all day and never need to meet your spouse. The Queen and Prince Philip have never shared a bedroom in their lives. They don't even have breakfast together.

The really clever people now want to be lawyers or journalists.

I'm boring. My beliefs are neither here nor there.

The scribbler's life is never done.

Tennyson seems to be the patron saint of the wishy washies, which is perhaps why I admire him so much, not only as a poet, but as a man.

When Christians start thinking about Jesus, things start breaking down, they lose their faith. It's perfectly possible to go to church every Sunday and not ask any questions, just because you like it as a way of life. They fear that if they ask questions they'll lose their Christ, the very linchpin of their religion.

I believe the collapse of the House of Windsor is tied in with the collapse of the Church of England.

On the rare occasions when I spend a night in Oxford, the keeping of the hours by the clock towers in New College, and Merton, and the great booming of Tom tolling 101 times at 9 pm at Christ Church are inextricably interwoven with memories and regrets and lost joys. The sound almost sends me mad, so intense are the feelings it evokes.

My kind publishers, Toby Mundy and Margaret Stead of Atlantic Books, have commissioned me to write the life of Queen Victoria.

In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.

The concept of two people living together for 25 years without a serious dispute suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.

The Englishman never enjoys himself except for a noble purpose.

A high-brow is someone who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso.

The critical period of matrimony is breakfast-time.

Let's find out what everyone is doing, And then stop everyone from doing it.

People must not do things for fun. We are not here for fun. There is no reference to fun in any Act of Parliament.

An Englishman never enjoys himself, except for a noble purpose.

This high official, all allow, is grossly overpaid; there wasn't any Board, and now there isn't any Trade.

I am sure that the party system is right and necessary. There must be some scum.

If nobody said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.