The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn't set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.

If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you've broken the news, so that you're forced to be there when someone's life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn't bother them - such people are not to be trusted.

My dad was a fairy," said Zach. "And by that I don't mean he dressed well and enjoyed musical theatre.

Are they really gods?" "I never worry about theological questions," said Nightingale. "They exist, they have power and they can breach the Queen's peace - that makes them a police matter.

When you're a boy your life can be measured out as a series of uncomfortable conversations reluctantly initiated by adults in an effort to tell you things that you either already know or really don't want to know.

In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold.

He was calling it an atonic seizure because, even if he didn't know why it had happened, it was important to give it a cool name.