Shelagh Delaney

Shelagh Delaney FRSL (25 November 1938 – 20 November 2011) was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work was A Taste of Honey.

Quotes

A Taste of Honey (1959)

Women never have young minds. They are born three thousand years old.

• The only consolation I can find in your immediate presence is your ultimate absence.
  • act 1, sc. 1 (loq. Helen)

• I’m not frightened of the darkness outside. It’s the darkness inside houses I don’t like.
  • act 1, sc. 1 (loq. Jo)

• Women never have young minds. They are born three thousand years old.
  • act 1, sc. 2 (loq. Boy)

• In this country there are only two seasons, winter and winter.
  • act 1, sc. 2 (loq. Jo)

• Why don't you learn from my mistakes? It takes half your time to learn from your own.
  • act 1, sc. 2 (loq. Helen)

• I dreamt about you last night. Fell out of bed twice.
  • act 1, sc. 2 (loq. Boy)

• My usual self is a very unusual self.
  • act 2, sc. 1 (loq. Jo)

• I can’t stand people who laugh at other people. They’d get a bigger laugh if they laughed at themselves.
  • act 2, sc. 1 (loq. Geof)

• As I was going up Pippin Hill,
  Pippin Hill was dirty.
  And there I met a pretty miss,
  And she dropped me a curtsy.
  Little miss, pretty miss,
  Blessings light upon you.
  If I had half a crown a day,
  I'd gladly spend it on you.
  • act 2, sc. 1 (loq. Geof)

• We don't ask for life, we have it thrust upon us.
  • act 2, sc. 2 (loq. Jo)
  • Cf. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 2, sc. 5 (loq. Malvolio)

The Lion in Love (1960)

• Anything's hard to find if you go around looking for it with your eyes shut.
  • act 1, sc. 1 (loq. Frank)

• This isn't such a bad place to be though. I imagine you could get very fond of it from a distance.
  • act 1, sc. 1 (loq. Loll)

• Oh! I must take my shoes off. Huh! Hell hath no fury like a woman’s corns, has it?
  • act 1, sc. 1 (loq. Kit)
  • cf. Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697), act 3 sc. 2 (loq. Zara)

Sweetly Sings the Donkey (1968)

• Sweetly sings the donkey
  As he goes to grass
  He who sings so sweetly
  Is sure to be an ass.
  • Epigraph

• I am here and I am safe and I am sick of it.
  • "Sweetly Sings the Donkey"

• "He was very ugly but people can't help the faces they're born with."
  • "Sweetly Sings the Donkey"

• According to her, only a revolution will ever bring true democracy to this country and the sooner revolution comes (she said) the better and even though hundreds of innocents will be slaughtered they will die in a good cause and men must be willing to sacrifice themselves. But that depends I suppose on which men you're thinking of.
  • "Sweetly Sings the Donkey"

• Has difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. This girl is a liar. Expect Improvement next term.
  • "Sweetly Sings the Donkey"

• He didn't play with his food anymore till it got cold; instead, down it went like fuel into a furnace keeping the ovens hot, and the energy at boiling point, as Tom hurtled through his life catching up with himself at last.
  • "Tom Riley"

• We teach you the pleasure of physical exercise—the team-spirit of games, too, for when you leave school finally you will find that life is a game, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, but a game that must be played with true team-spirit—there is no room for the outsider in life.
  • "The Teacher"

• "There aren't enough secrets to go round anymore. Some spies are having to invent secrets in order to earn a living. I can't help wondering what will happen when redundant spies join the ranks of the unemployed."
  • "My Uncle, the Spy"

• ... Poles seem to be as much condemned to a diet of caviar, vodka and the Polka as the English are to rare old port and pheasant.
  • "Vodka and Small Pieces of Gold"

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Shelagh Delaney on Wikipedia