“As soon as we stopped sleeping with our cousins and build walls, temples and a few decent nightclubs, society became too complex for any one person to grasp all at once, and thus bureaucracy was born. A bureaucracy breaks the… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“We decided to go back to basics and put the frighteners on some snouts." "Really?" "We adopted a proactive intelligence-gathering policy utilising appropriate stakeholders in the community and pre-established covert human intelligence sources. "And nobody can put a frightener on… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“He was from Yorkshire, or somewhere like that, and like many Northerners with issues, he'd moved to London as a cheap alternative to psychotherapy.” — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“I left in a hurry before he could change his mind, but I want to make it clear that at no point did I… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
The general public have a warped view of the speed at which an investigation proceeds. They like to imagine tense conversations going on behind… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“Something round and dirty and white was resting near my foot. It was a skull. I picked it up. ‘Is that you, Nicholas?’ I… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
Coffee arrived and the espresso was excellent, like an aromatic electric fence. — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“Peter Grant,’ I said. ‘Recent arrival, slacker and man of very little fame.” — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“My mum translated this in her head to "witchfinder," which was good because like most West Africans, she considered witchfinding a more respectable profession… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“Right from the start Abigail used to moan and fidget as her hair was relaxed or braided or thermally reconditioned, but her dad was… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
“The mark was from the glue that once held a folder into which a library card would have fitted back in the day when… — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
It's a sad fact of modern life that if you drive long enough, sooner or later you must leave London behind. — Ben Aaronovitch Copy Share Image
