7
" I'd completely forgotten about it. But I saw it now. Spelled out across the lunar surface, two words -- "Hello, Dad!"
I was grinning all over my face. I whispered, "Hello," into the phone. I was assuming that she'd written it for me. Now I come to think about it, maybe she was saying hello to the other dad, the one who'd left.
My dad looked across at me. He looked puzzled. Like he knew it had something to do with me. I said, "Hello, Dad." And he looked even more confused. When he hears this story maybe he'll think I got them to write it there for him. And maybe he'll be right. Maybe it was for both of us, and for other dads too. For all the dads on Earth. And for all the dads not on Earth. And for their dads, outwards in space and backwards in time, all the way to the Dad of the Universe.
And looking out into the space, it sends a greeting from Earth to the Universe. Hello, Dad. "
― Frank Cottrell Boyce , Cosmic
17
" Today, I live in France. We have been made utterly welcome by our French neighbours, who, if the subject arises, can only scratch their heads in utter bemusement at why we would want to leave this union. I try to explain, but in order to really understand, you have to be British. Or rather, not British, but a certain English sort – that peculiar, insular, self-aggrandising mentality that cannot see past the White Cliffs of Kent. I have never understood that, "
― Frank Cottrell Boyce , A Love Letter to Europe: An outpouring of sadness and hope – Mary Beard, Shami Chakrabati, Sebastian Faulks, Neil Gaiman, Ruth Jones, J.K. Rowling, Sandi Toksvig and others