Kate Thompson Quotes

“Life was rich with a different kind of urgency.”

When J.J.’s mother reveals that she wants more time for her birthday, J.J. decides to go and find some. A task, at first, that seems like an impossible undertaking for a fifteen-year-old. That is until a neighbor shows J.J. an unlikely place to look for everyone’s lost time.

J.J. Liddy, the main character of Kate Thompson’s novel The New Policeman, has a problem: there never seems to be enough time in the day. In fact, there seems to be decidedly less time.

But then J.J. discovers a place where time stands still—at least it used to. Time is leaking from our world into Tir na n’Og, But then J.J. discovers a place where time stands still—at least it used to. Time is leaking from our world into Tir na n’Og, the land of the fairies, and while we have too little of it, they are beginning to have too much.

When J.J.’s mother idly wishes for more time for her birthday, J.J. decides to find her some. But how can he find her time when he barely has enough time of his own to do the basics, like schoolwork—let alone to find out if the local rumors about his grandfather being a murderer are true?

The narration shifts throughout the book alternating between J.J. in his search for the county’s lost time and the wanderings of the new policeman in Kinvara, Garda Larry O’Dwyer. Like J.J. (and most of Kinvara it seems), the new policeman has a love for music.

At the same time, The New Policeman is irresistibly Irish, as if you can hear an Irish accent in the narration (or hear a jig or two in the background). The book’s “Irish-ness” is enhanced by Thompson’s integration of Irish mythology and folklore; a glossary in the back explains the pronunciation and origin of especially Irish words like ceili (a dance) or craic (fun).

There never quite seems to be enough time to do everything. That’s always been a problem, but it’s been getting worse lately. Everything always feels rushed, and there is no time just to wander along slowly and relax.

And only J.J. can make the journey to find out what’s causing the leak—but to do so, he’ll have to step out of his own life. And while J.J. quests in Tir na n’Og, the new policemen begins to show up in his hometown.

With barely enough hours in the day for school and his music, J.J. has no time left over to contemplate the shocking revelation that his grandfather may have been a murderer. To make matters worse, this time problem seems to affect everyone in Kinvara.

I guessed where some of the plot twists were going, but I didn’t catch the big one until right before it happened. And there were some twists I never saw coming at all. Completely delightful.

“She could feel his eyes on her almost constantly, but every time she had glanced across he had looked away. If she quickened her pace, he quickened his. If she stopped and pretended to examine something in the hedge, he stopped as well, always watching. It was almost as if he was teasing her and it unnerved her.”

“What she did not want was the embarrassment of someone trying to make friends with her. It was easier to stay out of it from the beginning, rather than face the disappointment which inevitably followed.”

“Soon she would be forgotten and ignored, dismissed as a swot or as too stuck up to bother with. That was painful sometimes, but it was easier than having to pretend to be like everyone else.”

“Everything and anything in life was bearable as long as she had this. What did it matter if she had to wear that absurd uniform and go to that snooty school. At the weekends she could be a squirrel, or a cat, or rabbit, or lolloping wolfhound or busy, rat-hunting terrier.”

“Squirrels do as squirrels must. It didn’t matter that she would not be there to hibernate during the winter. Autumn was collecting time, so collect is what she did.”

“She tugged again, and all at once was aware of another of those sudden woodland silences which always spell a warning.”

“She lifted her hand, and there was no hand, just the great, brown paw lifting to her face to feel the long snout and the round, furry ears. Tess had turned into a bear.”

″‘How can the weather not be natural?’ her mother asked. ‘If the weather isn’t natural, what is?‘”

“Tess gave herself over completely to the game and the joy of companionship. It happened occasionally that she met a friend of a sort in the animal world, but as with human friends, it always seemed to be hard work. This was different. The chipmunk was as eager for company as she was.”