Women From England

"I’ve just finished Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, and I’m now reading Nora Webster by Colm Toibin."

"It's definitely the secret to a successful relationship. Your children are very important and you do everything for them, but your husband is your priority because when they've flown the nest, it's you and him."

"My fiction ranges from the early 20th century to the 1970s. The 1950s and 1960s are dramatic because of the rapid changes in society that took place in just a few years. The changes were especially rapid in the Roman Catholic Church, and within the Church, none more so than in communities of nuns."

"But 85 per cent of women are still wearing the wrong size - honest to God. They'll come in to Rigby & Peller and they'll be falling out of their bra, the cups are sitting on top of their breasts like nipple warmers."

"Having a glamorous mum was my first insight into changing the face with makeup. When I got a little older I found out that my aunt was a makeup artist working with superstar celebs. My mind was made up!"

"It’s changing the way people interact with politics"

"Harold decided he was not interested. ‘We don’t need Rigby & Peller. I don’t want Rigby & Peller. We can’t afford Rigby & Peller."

""So we developed our own method to help." This involved ditching the measuring tape and simply assessing each customer's needs by sight."

"We are more like Facebook or Twitter than campaigning sites"

"The openness is part of why we see MPs using the site"

"I’m torn when I’m asked to be on a panel and am the only woman. Do I need to do it to make a point or do I say I won’t participate until they find more women? I’ve done that before. Subtle sexism that goes unchallenged is a big problem that you must call out"

"Subtle sexism that goes unchallenged is a big problem that you must call out"

"My advice? Stay under the radar. Keep to yourself, keep working and stay polite. Never bite! This is a small industry and people talk—your reputation can instantly be ruined with a little gossip."

"“My first beauty memory is watching my mum apply blue mascara.”"

"This photo of my siblings [Nic, now 36, and John and Jim, both 29] and I was taken in the pre-digital age when I was about 19. We’ve all gone on to have our own YouTube channels, but I love pictures like this because they captured the moment and were not polished – unlike social media today"

"I don’t have a lot of time to myself, but I am on my own when I go to my studio which is my thinking time. I lock the door behind me, make a coffee, sit down and think: “Right, what’s on my list for today"

"“Initially, I wanted to be a singer.”"

"People say they would kill to know what I know – and that is exactly what they would have to do."

"But it was all brilliant, we got on very well and I’ve had the Royal Warrant since 1982, so I must be doing something right"

"I was never defined by my working hours, I was defined by what I produced. That is what we need and we need to be respectful of the best way people work. I think businesses have to think about the best way to retain talent."

"It’s still weird to call this my work. It is a hobby that became a business. I guess what I do online is the advert for the jobs that make me money."

"There are so many influencers who do so many things, and I specifically will only talk about make-up and beauty."

"I received an Instagram DM from Maria, completely out of the blue, asking if I wanted to jump on a Zoom call with her. I was like: “Er, yes I do, you’re Maria!” I have been a fully paid up member of Beauty Pie for years and love the products. If I find something good, I want to talk about it, so I was organically chatting about a couple of their products and I guess they noticed. Marcia invited me to create a collection of nine must-have items."

"Social media is this massive digital concept I can't fully wrap my head around—who knows what the future holds? I'm not pinning my livelihood on it and I'm trying to make the right decisions for myself and my family. We just want to keep producing high quality content with a credible and authentic voice that's enjoyable for our subscribers to watch."

"I recently discovered that I’m a Virgo after an astrologer read my chart. I always thought I was a Leo as I’m on the cusp. When I saw this ring with its tiny diamond Virgo constellation in New York, I had to buy it. It makes sense to me now why I’m so analytical"

"I’ve re-bought Marianne Faithfull’s autobiography Faithfull so many times, as I keep loaning it to people. I am fascinated by women who are strong but don’t hide their flaws. She forged her own path and is brutally honest about her mistakes"

"Brands and their partners must start thinking about a future that extends beyond what fits in the palm of your hand."

"I love that I can take the dogs into Jarrolds and John Lewis in Norwich, which is another of my favourite places to shop partly because it is such a nostalgic building for me, and whilst it may not be independent"

"There's a lot of incorrect information out there. Most of our subscribers don't have the intention of becoming makeup artists, they're just looking for daily techniques for themselves. Aspiring makeup artists may enjoy our videos, but they understand that they need proper training and on-set experience."

"Femina consilio prudens, pia, prole beata, Auxit amicitiis, auxit honore virum."

"What afflicts the church and excites the murmur of the people and diminishes their esteem for you, is that, in spite of the tears and lamentations of whole provinces, you have not sent a single nuncio. Often for matters of little importance your cardinals have been sent to remote parts with sovereign powers, but in this desperate and deplorable affair, you have not sent so much as a single subdeacon or even an acolyte. The kings and princes of the earth have conspired against my son, the anointed of the Lord. One keeps him in chains while another ravages his lands; one holds him by the heels while the other flays him. And while this goes on, the sword of Saint Peter reposes in its scabbard. Three times you have promised to send legates and they have not been sent. In fact, they have rather been leashed than sent [potius ligati quam legati]. If my son were in prosperity, we should have seen them running at his call, for they well know the munificence of his recompense. Is this the meaning of your promises to me at Châteauroux, made with so many protestations of friend-ship and good faith? Alas! I know today that the promises of your cardinals are nothing but vain words. Trees are not known by their leaves, nor even by their blossoms, but by their fruits. In this wise we have known your cardinals."

"My posterity has been snatched from me...The young king and the Count of Britanny sleep in dust. Their unhappy mother is forced to live on, ceaselessly tormented by their memory...I have lost the staff of my age, the light of my eyes."

"She is the model of determination and icon for anyone who is or feels like an ‘outsider’"

"Miss Cave had humble legal aspirations and sought only to provide counsel should she be allowed to pursue a legal career. She did not aspire to the Bench."

"I am aware that my application is most unusual and no doubt without precedent, but trust that the Masters of the bench will give it their serious consideration and I should, in the event of a favourable reply, be pleased to conform to any special rules they may think fit to impose."

"Cave challenged the male exclusivity of the legal profession."

"Things look more hopeful now than ever."

"Perhaps I should have been more persistent."

"Eliza Orme had argued more generally in the 1890s that it was necessary to break down conventional barriers, allowing “each individual to do what natural talent prompts rather than what social status demands”"

"Eliza Orme’s Ambitions fills out earlier scant accounts of this intriguing life, while speculating about why it has been overlooked."

"The matinee witnessed the close of an era—an era which saw the birth and childhood of an English ballet. That era is past: English ballet has now reached the period of adolescence and a bright future stretches before it. How precarious its very existence was in the early days, and what a wonderful tonic the precept and example of Phyllis Bedells proved only the more elderly of us can know."

"There was a wonderful cast for 'Alice'. Stanley Brett, 's brother, played the ; Tom Graves, brother of , played the and ; Will Bishop, himself, was the First Lobster and the Golliwog; and was played by the beautiful . The rest of the cast were: as the and ; Florrie Arnold as the ; Rita Leggerio as the ; Harry Ulph as the and the ; as the Duchess and the ; Euphan Maclaren as the Cook; Marjorie West as the ; as the Dormouse; Margaret Fraser as the Second Lobster; Alice Dubarri as the First Fairy and the Rose; Julian Cross as the and the ; Florence Lloyd as the and the ; Harold Borrett as the and the . took the parts of the Executioner, the , and ; Carmen Sylva, the Lily; Dorrit MacLaxen, the Red Knight; Leslie Bilbe, the Lion; John Hobbs, the Unicorn; Tom Jones, the Leg of Mutton; Ethel Evans, the Plum Pudding. In Act I, I emerged from a large oyster shell, dressed as a little sailor boy, and danced a hornpipe. This seemed to me slightly incongruous, as I was supposed to be the First Oyster; but nobody minded."

"I had always had this big dream of becoming a singer but the truth is I was terrified of what everyone would think of me."

"When you don’t have an idea of where your next paycheck is coming from, it can take a toll on you."

"My research is in the field of spectral geometry, the study of how the shape of an object affects the modes in which it can resonate. A famous question in the field is, can one hear the shape of a drum? Spectral geometry bridges different branches of science, including engineering and physics, as well as a number of different fields of mathematics. However, quite different sorts of questions are studied within each discipline. I am a mathematical analyst, which gives me an appreciation for the infinite and the infinitesimal. At the moment, one of the things I am working on understanding is the total wavelength of a surface like a sphere or something of greater complexity, such as the surface of a bagel or a pretzel. What is this total wavelength? If you strike a surface it can resonate at any one of a list of frequencies, and the wavelength of the sound produced by the vibration is inversely proportional to the frequency. In the mathematically idealized model there are infinitely many possible wavelengths. The total wavelength should be the sum of all of these individual wavelengths except that this infinite sum equals infinity. Fortunately, a finite number can be assigned to it by a slightly elusive process called regularization. (This process is also used in mathematical physics to mysteriously obtain true answers from formulas which do not really make sense!) I first became interested in the total wavelength as a model related to a question which can be roughly stated as, can one hear the shape of the universe? However, the total wavelength shows up in many quite different areas of mathematics and I am finding these connections intriguing."

"I do research on a variety of problems in condensed matter physics. My primary interests are in the general field of statistical mechanics."

"I am a mathematical analyst, and most of my research is in the area of spectral geometry. Problems in spectral geometry are also studied by various kinds of geometers, number theorists, applied mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and others. What is Spectral geometry? Spectral geometry most usually means the study of how the geometry of an object is related to the natural frequencies of the object. These are the frequencies at which the object can vibrate. A vibrating object often produces a sound, and the frequencies can be heard as the dominant tone and the overtones of the sound. The well known question highlighting what spectral geometry is all about is the question "Can one hear the shape of a drum?" I am a mathematical analyst, and most of my research is in the area of spectral geometry. Problems in spectral geometry are also studied by various kinds of geometers, number theorists, applied mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and others. In mathematical terms, the natural frequencies of an object (or rather their squares) are the eigenvalues of a partial differential operator called the Laplacian. This Laplacian takes each function defined on the object and differentiates it twice to give a new function. The eigenvalues of the Laplacian form an infinite sequence of numbers tending to infinity. In spectral geometry we study how these numbers depends on the shape of the object. For people who like to know the full story, I should mention that many spectral geometers (including me) who work on the Laplacian on smooth manifolds study the whole sequence of eigenvalues of the Laplacian. Now the low eigenvalues can give accurate values for the frequencies at which a real life object vibrates, but the very high eigenvalues do not correspond to genuine physical vibrations of the object because of molecular forces and damping. These effects are not included in the model where the vibration is driven by the Laplacian alone. This means that my research is rather different from that of an engineer who wishes to model precisely the vibrations of a real life object. In actual fact the questions I work on are more closely related to mathematics arising in quantum physics and string theory. In addition, I don't always study the Laplacian, but also the eigenvalues of other operators, which might represent other physical quantities than the frequencies of vibration. I mostly study spectral geometry for nice smooth objects such as spheres and tori, but some people work on rough objects and even discrete objects like graphs. In the last eight years, I have worked mostly on the spectral zeta function, which is an infinite sum of powers of the eigenvalues. In particular, I have worked on the zeta-regularised determinant, which is used in topology, quantum field theory, and string theory. Recently, I have been very interested in the sum of squares of the wavelength of a surface, which is related to all kinds of different things including vortex theory."

"I went to Cambridge, which represented a second major change in my life. As I learned more mathematics, I saw that it is an entire world of its own which many people choose to live in, a world in many ways more real than the real world; it feels permanent, eternal, and offers a deep sense of security because nearly everyone who understands it agrees on what is truth. By the time I had finished at Cambridge, I was very involved with mathematics and did not consider other careers."

"I learned mathematics on my own from textbooks which is perhaps strange given that both my parents were involved in the subject. At the same time, I spent a good deal of time studying art and wanted to follow a career in that direction until I was eventually convinced by my family that I should first work for a mathematics degree to ensure that I could earn a living."

"I would like to thank John Garnett for a lot of very helpful advice."