7 Quotes & Sayings By Alice Thomas Ellis

Alice Thomas Ellis was born on June 12, 1922, in London. He is the only child of an English mother and a French father, both of whom were writers. He was brought up in England until he was fourteen years old. He then went to boarding school in France where he read widely in French literature and spoke fluent French at home Read more

At sixteen he began his first novel, which he did not finish before he went to Oxford to study history and English literature. The war interrupted his education and he joined the Royal Air Force for three years. The war ended and he returned to Oxford to complete his degree.

After graduating from Oxford University, Ellis spent a year travelling around Europe before starting postgraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, and completing a doctorate in English literature after two years. This degree was followed by a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, where he studied under T. S.

Eliot and F. R. Leavis.

Shortly after this, Ellis married his student girlfriend and moved with her to Buenos Aires where they lived for two years while she completed her degree in economic geography at Columbia University. Upon returning to London in 1954, Ellis began teaching at the University of London’s School of Oriental Studies (SOAS). One year later he became the Librarian of the British Museum; ten years later began editing the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) in conjunction with Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee; and in 1975 took over editing the DNB from Sir Sidney Lee in preparation for its publication as an electronic database known as The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OED).

This work continued until 1986 when Ellis retired from SOAS after forty-two years service there as Professor of Modern History and Professor of English Literature. In retirement Ellis lives alone in London but visits France regularly where his wife died six years ago this November.

1
They shared an image of the American Christmas--riches, reconciliations, tears, snow, success, sentiment, furs and firs, the shop windows shining like Heaven and everything good for sale. Alice Thomas Ellis
2
.. to cook well and with imagination you have to be in a cheerful and contented frame of mind, and thus inclined to be generous. Alice Thomas Ellis
3
When a baronet is discovered behind a bush in the park with a guardsman, or a minister of the crown is caught creeping out of a country with his socks stuffed full of bank notes and a woman not his wife ten paces behind, or a public person is revealed disporting himself with a couple of tarts and a teddy bear in West Paddington, they complain to the press that the outcry is hypocritical and that everyone would like to do what they were doing if only they had the chance. They regard the law as an instrument of envy, like nationalization and death duties. Alice Thomas Ellis
4
Death is the last enemy: once we've got past that I think everything will be all right. Alice Thomas Ellis
5
There is no reciprocity. Men love women women love children children love hamsters. Alice Thomas Ellis
6
Death is the last enemy: once we've got past that I think everything will be alright. Alice Thomas Ellis