Detective Quote by David Starkey

“Delving into history is not an escape for me. I'm like a detective, sniffing for clues with a terrier-like excitement.”

David Starkey

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More by David Starkey

I enjoy cooking, but stick to modern dishes.

David Starkey

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Only bad teachers lecture at a tutorial.

David Starkey

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I was born in a council house, my father left school at the age of 11, had his teeth out without anaesthetic at the…

David Starkey

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I was a complete and typical only child. I was bookish, and sport was out of the question anyway. I had read all of…

David Starkey

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I hate niceness.

David Starkey

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Compare the scale and magnifcence of Versailles with St James's - the brick-built hovel in which the 18th-century kings of England lived. What was then the most powerful monarchy in the world housed its sovereigns in a converted leper hospital, yet, at the same time, parliament provided the magnificent palaces of Chelsea and Greenwich as hospitals for retired soldiers and…

David Starkey

Churchill may have made some horrendous mistakes - Gallipoli, for one - but he had a sense of the profundity and integrity of the English experience. By contrast, Blair believes he excised the past in 1997, though what no one on the left seems to have realised is that his historic mission was to destroy the Labour party, not the Tories.

David Starkey

We have this extraordinarily unbalanced constitution, in which we have an elected dictatorship of the prime minister.

David Starkey

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Historians have become far too precious. Their work has become ever more specialised and, as they steadily lose the context of their studies, they…

David Starkey

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Floating the idea that every kid in Brixton can become a whizkid at information technology is dishonest.

David Starkey

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The reign of Henry VIII is the axis around which England turns.

David Starkey

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What I love doing is creating a room, with attractive paintings and colours and furnishings - very much my mother.

David Starkey

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Explore all 114 David Starkey quotes

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I read a lot of 'Nancy Drew' books as a kid and considered myself a bit of an amateur detective.

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It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

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Arthur Conan Doyle was entranced by the notion of a brilliant detective who can deduce everything a stranger has been up to from the…

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Sure, I'll have characters drop in and out of books but the main cast of characters always changes. Maybe I'm wrong but I think…

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“Frankly, I wish I could make my heart quit doing an extra thump when Wolfe says satisfactory, Archie. It's childish.”

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I used to audition for 'NYPD Blue' quite a bit, so I had this stock New York detective character that I would bring in…

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I've written a detective series myself, set in an imaginary, and slightly futuristic, Chinese city. The novels have an extremely tenuous relationship with the…

Liz Williams