Joanna Cannan Quotes

“It was all rather complicated because Mummy had said that we had to go live in the country because Daddy had lost his money in pepper; and an awful thought came to me that perhaps we wouldn’t be able to afford a license for Shadow or his dinners.”

“In fact, we soon found out that every day in the country something happens, and it’s not like going to the Cinema or to museums and seeing what happened to other people: the things happen to you- they’re your own adventures.”

″...suddenly I wanted, more than I wanted puppies even, to hear someone say, ‘Oh, Jean’s all right. She can ride anything.‘”

“It seemed so awfully ungrateful to go away and leave the laurels to their fate when they had always been so obliging and hidden me from Nurse with their poor, ugly, sooty, Victorian leaves.”

“That’s another tiresome thing about having rich parents- you have what grown-ups call ‘advantages’. They think that you are very lucky and ought to be grateful, but I have tried both and I can tell you that it is much more fun to go to an ordinary school and have a bad French accent like other children.”

“I didn’t know then that it was the smell that all gun dogs have- a country smell.”

“My dear, if Jean would like him she can have him as a gift. Honestly he isn’t worth anything.”

“Daddy bought him out of kindness. He’s been half starved and he’s all over horse bites. He simply won’t go. He can’t jump either.”