Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I really need a gin and tonic.
No one knows what goes on behind any front door.
If you are a positive person, you can do so much more.
I genuinely like people and I'm so curious about them.
I will be a patron of Battersea as long as I am standing.
Manchester is a past master at bringing light to dark times.
I'd be out in my garden all day, every day if I were allowed.
Spending time with a book is much more than just learning to read.
Anything I plant, to actually watch it grow gives me great pleasure.
I don't think I'm tough but I do think I'm quite a strong character.
I'm riveted by other people's lives so it's never a hardship to talk to people.
Thank goodness I was brought up with the grounding of my parents, and taught manners.
The link between young girls, eating disorders and osteoporosis is a ticking time-bomb.
I take all my grandchildren down to the garden and they spend hours and hours eating peas.
We were brought up in a very happy family and I can't whinge about my childhood because it was idyllic.
Just as my father read to us as children, I used to read to my own children and now read to my grandchildren.
What particularly concerns me is the rise of osteoporosis in young people and its link with eating disorders.
One of my favourite plants is English lavender but it doesn't have the best reputation for growing in the Highlands.
I'm ashamed to say that I really hated the Internet. I didn't understand it and I thought, 'What's the point of this?'
Turning the pages of a favourite book creates a very special bond with our grandchildren, but it's not just an indulgent pleasure.
Our parents gave us a certain amount of freedom, and we had a really good time. We've brought up our children in vaguely the same way.
You have all these glossy magazines which are read by young girls, who then go on a diet and try to be thin to emulate the models they see.
People haven't really acknowledged the issues of coercive control, which can be terrifying, it really is one person's word against another.
We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, by thought, word and deed.
We all know that reading is an invaluable life skill. It is vital for children in their education and as they take their place in the grown-up world.
Military nurses have worked alongside their NHS colleagues across the United Kingdom, using the skills learnt in conflict in the battle against COVID.
Far too often, those living with abuse do feel there is no one to help. I have learned how vital it is to spread the word about the help that is available.
Sadly, there are many children who have not yet been given the chance to 'discover the magic of reading, or set foot in the worlds you can discover on bookshelves.
I was hopeless with the Internet, I didn't even like it either. As I said before, I thought 'what an annoying thing' you know, it's doing all these terrible things.
Over the years, I have been privileged to meet many women, men and children who have escaped domestic abuse and who are determined to tell their stories to save others.
I like them cooked but I tell you what I really like - eating peas straight from the garden. If you take them straight from the pod they are delicious and really sweet.
The nice thing about dogs is you can sit them down, you could have a nice long conversation, you could be cross, you could be sad, and they just sit looking at you wagging their tail!
You can eat sensibly, exercise and stay trim. You don't have to starve yourself and risk damaging your health irrevocably. We need to make young girls aware of this. We need to drive it home.
I have so many friends who, if I ever even vaguely look like getting uppity, which touch wood I never have, they would just say, 'Look, come on, pull yourself together! Don't be so bloody grand!'
Sometimes you get up in the morning and think you can't do it, and you just have to. The minute you stop it's like a balloon, you run out of puff - you sort of collapse in a heap. I think you live on adrenaline.
Reading to our children and our grandchildren is something we can all try to do every day of the year. Not only does it give us pleasure but it leads them on a voyage of discovery and enrichment that only books can bring.
I was very lucky to have a father who read to us when we were children. And he didn't just read books - he brought them alive. We couldn't wait for the next chapter. So my love of reading started early and has stayed with me all my life.
When I sit down with my team before an engagement, sometimes they are horrified as I say I don't want to read the biographical brief because I prefer to prise information out of people. It becomes like a game. The stories that come out, I could write a book about.
For about a year, when we lived at Middlewick, I couldn't really go anywhere. But the children came and went as normal - they just got on with it - and so did great friends. I would pass the time by reading a lot - more than I'd ever have been able to in a normal life.
It sounds, especially in this day and age, sort of snobbish, but we left school at 16, nobody went on to university unless you were a real brainbox. Instead, we went to Paris and Florence and learned about life and culture and how to behave with people, how to talk to people.
I think we have all got to keep active - if we don't we will just seize up and, you know, we won't be able to get out of bed in the morning. It doesn't matter what it is, 10 minutes or 20 minutes, it just starts off the day and I do a sort of combination: a bit of Silver Swans and a bit of pilates and a lot of walking, which I love.
I had the privilege of hearing incredibly brave women standing up to tell their stories - harrowing stories that reduced many of us listeners to tears. But with each story, the taboo around domestic abuse weakens and the silence that surrounds it is broken, so other sufferers can know that there is hope for them and they are not alone.
I have often said that domestic violence is characterised by silence: of the abused, of the abuser and of those who don't know how to intervene. But the media have the ability to break this corrosive silence: bringing us the voices of victims; shattering the taboo; and raising awareness of what we can all do to stop this heinous crime.