Home > Work > A Catalogue of Catastrophe (The Chronicles of St. Mary's, #13)
1 " Everyone in the building was pleasant and friendly and helpful. They had to be the nicest, politest, most inclusive sinister organisation up to no good in the whole history of sinister organisations up to no good. "
― Jodi Taylor , A Catalogue of Catastrophe (The Chronicles of St. Mary's, #13)
2 " Echoes of Clause 39 can be found all over the world, even in the American Bill of Rights – when they still had a Bill of Rights, of course. "
3 " Seriously?’ I said, quite delighted. I was being arrested for crimes against the very legislation designed to make History safe for historians. Thank you, Professor Hawking, the patron saint of time travellers everywhere. And possibly I was a little punch-drunk as well. Show me one single person who’s ever been arrested three times in thirty minutes. And all by different people for different crimes in different times. Am I a legend or what? Three times, people. "
4 " I swung my legs out of bed, pulled jeans and a sweatshirt over my pyjamas, jammed my feet into trainers, and had a quick look at what he’d left me. Night visor, blaster, handgun, stun gun. It would seem something fairly dangerous threatened. Jehovah’s Witnesses, perhaps. "
5 " But we had the technology. We could rebuild. "
6 " I could hear men shouting orders. Followed by a thousand voices raised in some sort of battle cry. I couldn’t make out the words but likely it was a demand that God strengthen their sword arms and sow confusion in the enemy ranks. To me it sounded like the medieval equivalent of, ‘Oggy, Oggy, Oggy – Oi, Oi, Oi. "
7 " We traipsed back in again to inspect the damage. At least, Pennyroyal and Markham inspected the damage; Smallhope searched the prisoners and I put the kettle on. We all have our own areas of expertise. "
8 " 044 – which is England – "
9 " The removal of Nicola de la Haye might also affect the outcome of the siege.’ In the dark days when most women went unnoticed and were barred from education or public office, Nicola de la Haye shone like a star. Inheriting the position of Constable of Lincoln Castle from her father, she so impressed King John that he made her Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1216. It would be very fair to say that without her leadership, Lincoln Castle would have fallen. And England, too. "
10 " My margarita-laden mind was struggling to cope. ‘We are History’s instruments,’ Markham cried, dramatically. ‘Tools, more like,’ I said. ‘We are the Tools of History. "
11 " Shitting Harry. Was I dead and they’d sent me to heaven and I was going to have to spend the rest of eternity sitting on a cloud listening to harp music and being nice to people? "
12 " Seriously – have you seen the sort of people who think they qualify for heaven? The thought of spending eternity with that lot . . . This was definitely not good. "
13 " And suddenly I was back. I knew where I was. I was standing in a foggy street in 17th-century London with a bloody and near unconscious Markham draped around me, black treason was abroad, and I couldn’t find the pod. Just a normal day at work, really. "
14 " Actually, Markham wasn’t a bad cook. No need to tell him that, either. In fact, he was turning out to be quite a domestic goddess. You can tell him that. "