Monica Dickens

Monica Enid Dickens, MBE (10 May 1915 – 25 December 1992) was an English best-selling novelist, memoirist, autobiographer, and the author of the 1973 non-fiction book Talking of Horses. She was appointed in the 1981 New Year Honours Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Quotes

... I took the ashes out to the dustbin, leaving a little trail of cinders from a broken corner of the box. The trouble about housework is that whatever you do seems to lead to another job to do or a mess to clear up.
- One Pair of Hands (6th ed.). London: Michael Joseph. 1949. p. 22. (244 pages; 1st edition 1939)

With the suit, Christine wore a grey felt beret which had been sold to her cheaply by Mrs Arnold in Millinery, because it had a mark on the back and no customer would buy it. Women were absurdly fussy when they had money to spend. When they were walking along Piccadilly they were just ordinary women, quite meek and obeying the policeman at the St James's Street crossing; but as soon as Goldwyn's commissionaire, who bought his medals at the Surplus Supply stores in the Strand, had pushed open the swing doors for them, they became customers, and that made them arrogant.
Christine had easily removed the mark on the hat with some lighter fluid. Any woman could have done the same; but to have noticed the mark with a shrewd mouth, to have refused to buy the polluted hat made them feel recherché.
- "Chapter One". No More Meadows. A&C Black. 2011. ISBN 9781448202782. (434 pages; 1st edition 1953, published by Michael Joseph)

The road from Boston to Cape Cod is long and straight and ruthless. Two black slashes cutting through the sandy country of pine and scrub oak which never grow to any size before a motorist throws out a cigarette on to the dry grass and levels everything neatly down again.
In winter, the cars carry Boston businessmen in hats worn straight and true, and women with plastic statues of the Sacred Heart suctioned to the dashboard. In summer, the cars are full of families, and trail boats and little houses behind them.
When the road was made, for the locust families to redouble their assault on Cape Cod, hills were leveled, hollows filled, the landscape brought to order. The bare scrub land is empty since everyone has gone top-heavily to the coast, like passengers crowding to the ship's rail.
- "Chapter One". The Room Upstairs. A&C Black. 2011. ISBN 9781448206322. (192 pages; 1st edition 1966, published by William Heinemann)

In the Refusal Race, you had to trot up to a jump, stop the horse and sail over the jump by yourself on to Anna's spare-room mattress.
- "Chapter 3". The Horses of Follyfoot. Random House. 2012. ISBN 9781849399364. (208 pages; 1st edition 1975)

If Monica Dickens means nothing more to you than horsey books and no-nonsense memoirs of nursing and service, then this eloquent novel about the genteel poverty of a widow shunted between her three egotistical daughters is a fine corrective.
- Isobel Montgomery, (29 October 2010) "The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens – review". The Guardian. (The 1st edition of The Winds of Heaven was published in 1955.)