The Key to Rebecca
by Ken Follett
(London: Pan, 2019)
The last camel collapsed at noon.
Page 3.
He liked the animal as much as a man could like a camel, which is to say that he hated it only a little.
Page 3.
When he awoke he thought for a moment that he was a boy again, and that his adult life had been a dream.
Page 8.
The situation was becoming more and more like a nightmare or a farce, in which well-intentioned people pushed him into increasingly senseless behaviour in consequence of one small lie.
Page 22.
He always smoked whilst he was shaving - it was the only way he knew to relieve the boredom of the inevitable daily task.
Page 24.
He had to ridicule the idea, as an excuse for not thinking of it himself.
Page 32.
He knew her too well to like or dislike her: she was part of his past, like an old friend who remains a friend, despite his faults, just because he has always been there.
Page 49.
A zone of silence went with her across the floor. People fell quiet as she approached and then began to talk about her when she had passed.
Page 127.
Hitler had the right idea but the wrong target, she believed. It was not the Jews whose racial weakness infected the world - it was the British. The Jews in Egypt were more or less like everyone else: some rich, some poor, some good, some bad. But the British were uniformly arrogant, greedy and vicious.
Page 128.
She was very tense, but it was clear she was not willing to tell him why. He always felt very annoyed with women in moods like this.
Page 153.
He should have felt pleased with his evening’s work, but instead he felt as if he had done something a little shameful. He heard the door of her apartment bang shut behind him.
Page 154.
He was a man with a big appetite for life - an appetite which he had firmly under control, too firmly.
Page 155.
He felt so depressed that he wondered whether things could possibly get any worse, and he realized that, of course, they could.
Page 191.
Most of everything was routine.
Page 203.
The thief is entitled to the proceeds of his crime, according to the laws of God.
Page 231.
In England decency is making slow progress; in Germany it’s taking a big step backwards. Think about the people you love, and the issues become clearer.
Page 243.
It was impossible, in an African country, to use conspicuous, white-skinned, English-speaking people for surveillance.
Page 246.
She did not know what to say, so she said nothing.
Page 253.
The walls you build to protect you also close you in.
Pages 291-292.
Nothing infuriated Rommel more than orders form Italians.
Page 313.
All across Cairo the British were burning their files, and the sooty smoke had blotted out the sun.
Page 323.
“If I can get the key to the Rebecca code, I can impersonate Wolff over the radio and send false information to Rommel. It could turn the tables completely - it could save Egypt. But I must have the key.”
Page 353.
It was curious that Wolff, the ruthless one, was getting desperate whilst Vandam just got cooler.
Page 456.