Here is our life in quotations. You can copy what I have done. I'm going to tell you the story of my life in quotations, many of which you already know.
I've got a little list.
Do that phrase sound familiar to you?
I've got a little list, from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta the Mikado.
Visit: You can have lunch or walk around the gardens of Grimskyke Hotel in Harrow Weald, former home of Gilbert who was a local magistrate and his bust is in All Saints Church.
I'll start where I was born.
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner ... (that I love London so). A song.
MY CHILDHOOD AND MOTHER
I must have been a chatty little girl, because my mother often used to say,
Words are given to us to clothe our thoughts.
Years later, after she died, I searched in my books of quotations and on line. I found that was said by the French statesman Talleyrand. Nobody in my family had ever heard of Talleyrand, but my mother quoted him every day.
SCHOOL
On my way to school by bus or train I would read a book or my diary.
Sometimes I would miss the stop and be late. I remembered the saying:
Better late than never but better never late.
At my girls' grammar school we started and ended lunch by saying grace:
For what we are about to receive may we be truly thankful.
On my way to school the bus passed a church which had a sign outside which read:
I complained because I had no shoes - until I met a man who had no feet.
ENTERTAINMENT And GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
For a treat, for entertainment when I was a child when you went to the cinema, the performance ended with everybody standing and singing
God Save The Queen.
(Visits: Buckingham Palace in London. Windsor Castle in Windsor.)
I lived in Edgware. I remember reading Anne Frank's Diary. I did not know that Anne Frank's father was living in Edgware, incognito. Her words are on a p l a q u e in the Harrow Civic Centre:
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
(Visit: Harrow Civic Centre in 2016. Take photos of the Anne Frank plaque, the stained glass windows from Whitefriars Glass, the objects in the glass case in the parlour and the tiles of local people and places not he staircase wall. The Council is planning to knock down the building and move to another site.)
I and my family have lived in roads and buildings called The Rise, Edgware, Aylwards Rise, Stanmore, Cashew Heights, Singapore, and Hillview Road, Hatch End. All these names make me think of Harrow on the Hill. When I went to the Harrow Civic Centre I saw stained Glass windows showing Winston Churchill. He said:
It is good for an uneducated man to read quotations.
(Visit Harrow School. See outside for free. Tours of inside. Must book.)
From Harrow you can catch the fast Metropolitan line train into Baker Street, in London.
Nowadays we have a statue of Sherlock Holmes and a Sherlock Holmes museum.
Sherlock Holmes used to say,
Elementary, my dear Watson.
(Visit: Baker Street station. Statue of Sherlock outside free. Museum shop free. Museum paid entry. Queues and timed entry. Must book your tour.)
I loved going to Foyles bookshop in London with my book tokens after birthdays to buy a book.
He who is tired of London is tired of life. (Jonson.)
Visit: Foyles bookshop on corner of Tottenham Court Road near Tottenham Court Road station free.
Can you say who said famous quotations?
You can use quotations as the title for a book on your travels, a song about the city you visit, a poem about an event which happened on holiday, or the cover for your year's diary or travel diary.
FRENCH QUOTATIONS
At primary school we learned a French song:
Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse
This week I wrote in my travel blog about a rosé win which won an award at Avignon. I looked up the song Sur le mont d'Avignon in Wikipedia. I discovered we had all got the words of the song wrong. It is not sur, meaning on the bridge, but sous, meaning under the bridge.
The things I dreamed of as a schoolchild, teenager and a student, have all come true.
1 A spell checker.
2 A phone you can carry with you.
3 A navigator with a recorded voice which tells you which direction to take when driving.
I typed this out using a spell checker.
Sur le p o n t was changed automatically to sur le m o n t, as if the French were dancing on a mountain instead of a bridge. I tried again and remembered to type on the cross which rejects the suggested spelling, then sur le p o n t was changed to s u r le pong which is both nonsense and slightly insulting as if the delightful French dancers I imagined were dancing sur le pong - on a nasty smell.
When I was small menus were all in French. Wine was only drunk at weekends and special occasions. Champagne was for weddings.
When I was small my parents drove on holiday to France, taking the car on the ferry.
TRAVEL AND WRITING ADVENTURE STORIES WITH TWISTS
It is better to travel in hope than to arrive.
So said Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island.
Every year I go on two writing courses where I meet other authors. I buy their books, which they sign for me. They buy my books, which I sign for them. I went on a course about writing short stories with twist endings. It was run by Adele Ramet, and I bought her book, How to write a short story with a twist ending.
About twenty of us in her class were all struggling to find a one twist ending to a short story. Then I read Treasure Island, and was staggered to see that every chapter had a twist ending. it starts with a man approaching the inn where the boy lives, footsteps, the sound of the walking stick. Finally the door opens. The stick is white;,the man is blind. Shortly afterwards the man, dragging a chest of t r e a s u r e, dies. But the treasure chest contains no treasure, just a map of where to find treasure.
Every time I travel and get delayed, whether it's the tube to Sherlock Holmes' Baker street, or the ferry to France, I console myself with Robert Louis Stevenson's saying,
It is better to travel in hope than to arrive.
Years later, when I wrote my book of quotations, Who Said What When, I looked up his life story and discovered he had started life on one island, Great Britain, and spent his later years and died on an island in the Pacific ocean.
How far he travelled. I remember being scared as a passenger in a car. Later I read a rhyme which often comes to mind when I am a passenger.
He was right dead right as he sped along, but he's just as dead as if he were wrong.
I try to keep a diary and a diary in pictures on my mobile phone.
When I see a quotation I photograph it.
For example:
SINGAPORE
At the engineering department in Singapore where I went to a students' speakers' training club.
In the Community Centre in Bukit Panjang (meaning long hill in Malay language) I saw a different
motivational quotation on the two upper levels.
Two Toastmasters clubs meet in CC: English speaking. Bilingual (Chinese i.e. Mandarin and English.) For clubs see Toastmasters International Find a Club website
Those photos are essential. When I look at my holiday photos I think of Disraeli's quotation:
I have seen more than I have remembered and remembered more than I have seen.
Benjamin Disraeli.
Disraeli's House, National Trust. Buckinghamshire, England.
At the front of my self published life story I have included postage stamp size pictures of all my family and friends and neighbours and their unusual or daily sayings. Even a cliche can sum up a person's attitude, and strike fresh to somebody born in another country.
When you find that another country or political group or age group or religion has the same saying as your favourite or familiar, it is equally surprising and gratifying.
WEDDINGS
After university I got married. Weddings are occasions when you hear a speech. The easiest and quickest way to write a speech, and an amusing speech, is to quote other people better known and better writers than yourself.
Now I know the story of Verve Cliquot, and Lily Bollinger who said of wine:
"I only drink it ... "
In the nineteen Sixties we drank Mateus Rose from Portugal and Asti Spumante from Italy but had no quotations to match them. Now we drink Prosecco from Italy. Champagne has all the best quotations and songs -
"The night they invented Champagne ...!"
My first job was with the British Council sending teachers abroad. I dreamed of teaching English abroad but didn't have an English degree.
My second job was as personal assistant in an advertising agency opposite Baker Street station, to the New Business executive, Eric Webster, author of How to Win The Business Battle, published by John Murray, whose offices were round the corner. I typed out all the chapters of Eric Webster's next book. Every chapter started with a quotation. I did not envisage that one day I would compile a book of quotations. I was frustrated.
Alas, I was just a glorified secretary. I was not yet a teacher, let alone an author. I didn't know that forty years later I would be able to teach English in the Far East. Nor did I know that I would become an author and a self-published author. Eric Webster had Parkinson's.
Eric died and I transferred to the copywriting department, as secretary to the head of department. At last a writer. Copywriters write slogans. Margaret Thatcher, and the conservatives:
You've never had it so good.
My first job, a non-job, was to write a caption for a leaving card for a big busted girl called Rosie. I wrote:
wishing you a Rosie future. I asked the card illustrator to draw a picture of a big red rose with her face in the middle. We bought her a bunch of red roses to match the card. She was delighted. I was instantly promoted from secretary to copywriter.
I worked on the Hague whisky account. Their slogan was a rhyme:
Don't be vague, ask for Hague.
The trick to humour is to save the surprise for the last sentence of last word.
AMERICA
After I married I went to America with my husband Trevor and I was asked to write a book on wedding speeches.
AMERICA
In America I learned all the American quotations.
My favourites are about by and about presidents, and humorous quotations.
When I fly on a plane to Singapore the airline Singapore Airlines is very good. However, whenever the coffee is served I remember Abraham Lincoln's words,
If this is tea, bring me coffee. If this is coffee, bring me tea.
I also recall W C Fields:
When I read that drinking was bad for you, I gave up drinking.
SINGAPORE AND CHINESE QUOTATIONS
I often fly to Singapore where I often hear quotations from Confucius and LaoTse,
"A jar knee of Tau sand mile bee gin wit sin girl step. True, la?"
Translate from Singlish into English and this reads:
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. (How very true, don't you agree?)"
I know exactly what they mean.
(I taught English In Singapore. I was in demand. As one pupil said to me, You have good acc-sent. You use
wrong words."
I asked, "Do you mean wrong words. I think you mean long words? He smiled,
"Yes, tea cher, I mean wrong words. Many silly bull, wrong words."
Grammar
Not everybody enthuses about grammar. Winston Churchill said,
"This is something up with which I will not put."
(Visit Harrow school in Harrow; walk uphill from Harrow station on Metropolitan line.)
I am also very popular in Toastmasters speakers clubs. In the UK we have a role at a meeting of Grammarian. In Singapore it is called Language Evaluator. I am often asked to be Language Evaluator. I listen to the President talking about the team. I presume he is about to describe the teamwork. He goes on to talk about the theme.)
For example:
I belong to Toastmasters International, which has many clubs
.....
in many countries
with many members.
STASTICS
I am not good at statistics. My husband is the expert on statistics. He can tell you how many marriages take place every year, how
many divorces, amongst statisticians and
How to lie with statistics. (Book by Darrell Huff.)
Mark Twin attributed to Disraeli:
There are lies damed lies and statistics
I make friends everywhere, on the bus, in the lift, on the train, on the plane. I think of the phrase:
The world is not full of strangers, only friends we have not yet met.
How and Why I wrote Quick Quotations
Where I have used Quotations in my books
I have used quotations at the start of in
my poetry workbook
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When
my two favourites are from Marilyn Monroe:
If you can make a girl laugh you can make her do anything.
Israeli president:
If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.
What can you write on the last page of a diary.
I will leave the last word to Shakespeare.
All's well that ends well.
At Toastmasters we are taught that we should involve the listener and make a difference to their lives with a 'call to action'.
My call to action is read, recommend and buy my books:
Quick Quotations by Angela Lansbury
Who Said What When by Angela Lansbury
(Not yet in bookstores. Currently on Lulu.com as print and ebooks and if you meet me in person you can buy a signed copy which I will dedicate to you.)
The price depends on what I have had to pay for the printing, plus the postage. Both vary according to how many books I buy and whether Lulu has a special offer. I have two versions of Quick Quotations, a thinner version and a thicker one, at different prices. I also give a slight discount if I have run out of pristine copies and only have a dog-eared copy I have been carrying around. The price in Singapore dollars will vary with the exchange rate.
Angela Lansbury, author of
Quick Quotations £
Who Said What When £
See books on Lulu.com
Buy at Writers' Holiday and Writers' Summer School
