“There are problems and there are children. It is our aim to separate the two.”

“He was a commander in the Russian army at a time when the Russians were our enemies and still part of the Soviet Union . This wasn't very long ago, Alex.The collapse of communism. It was only in 1989 that the Berlin Wall came down." She stopped. "I suppose none of this means very much to you.""Well, it wouldn't," Alex said. "I was only two years old.”

“So it's a coincidence. Just like you said. Two rich parents with two rich kids at the same school. They're both killed in accidents. Why are you so interested?""Because I don't like coincidence," Blunt replied. "In fact, I don't believe in coincidence. Where somepeople see coincidence, I see conspiracy. That's my job.”

“The school even had a Latin motto: Pergo et Perago, which sounded like the story of two Italian cannibals but which actually meant “I try and I achieve.”

“Statues lined the stairs and stood, dotted across the roof. But they had been brutalized by time and the weather. Some were missing arms. Many had no faces. Once they had been saints and angels. Two hundred years standing in London had turned them into cripples.”

“Then why don't you go and ---- yourself.”

“Do you realise how much trouble you're in?""Perhaps I'll have some Weetabix after all.”