Wit & Wisdom

“Fairy tales are not about gauzy frocks and ego gratification. They are about child murder, cannibalism, starvation, deformity, desperate human creatures cast into the form of beasts, or chained by spells, or immured alive in thorns.” Hilary Mantel in The Guardian

“When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.” Poet Czeslaw Milosz, quoted in The Mail on Sunday

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” Gustave Flaubert, quoted in The Daily Telegraph

“I like to imagine the guy who invented the umbrella was going to call it the ‘brella’. But he hesitated.” Andy Field at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, quoted in The Guardian

“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” Peter De Vries, quoted on The Browser

“No matter how dirty your past is, your future is still spotless.” Drake, quoted on Inc.com

“We will not make the same old mistakes. We will make our own.” Henry Kissinger, quoted in Esquire

“If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people in the world?” Stephen Fry, quoted in The Daily Telegraph

Statistic of the week

Black boys and youths are nine times as likely as young white males to be jailed in England and Wales. In 2015-16, around nine in every 10,000 young black people were in young offender institutions, secure training centres, or secure homes, compared with one in every 10,000 white youths.