Date: 2009

"He had in fact retained a vivid mental picture of Emma from that night, lying on the single bed, naked except for the skirt around her waist, her arms thrown up above her head as they kissed."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"Forced to raise her voice, Emma could hear it echoing in her head as she spoke with great passion and force about her new career."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"A little bit of success and they want to knock you down well I don't care I like my job and I'm bloody good at it and it's much much harder than people think balls of steel that's what you need to be a TV presenter and a mind like a like a well quick-thinking anyway and besides you mustn't take ...

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"His brain gradually empties of work, of falafel wraps and oaty squares, and he starts to feel hopeful for the evening; perhaps he'll acquire that state of peaceful inactivity that is the nirvana of the exhausted parent."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"Emma felt another small portion of her soul fall away."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"This kind of erotic reverie occupied great swathes of Dexter's mental energy, and he wondered if perhaps Emma was right, perhaps he was a little too distracted by the sexual side of things."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"His mind snagged on the word like a fish on a hook."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"She turned to face the tree-line, but over the years she had reached a level of familiarity with Dexter where it had become possible to hear an idea enter his mind, like a stone thrown into mud."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)

Date: 2009

"Blackbirds are singing on Coldharbour Lane and he has the sensation, so vivid that it is almost an hallucination, that he is entirely hollow; empty, like an easter egg."

— Nicholls, David (b. 1966)