It’s time to post some more favourite metaphors and phrases I’ve found in my reading:

by Jennifer Bryce

Description of W.H. Auden: He suddenly looked terribly old and frail but as nobly formal as a Gothic cathedral Oliver Sacks: On the Move, p.199
The leaching of her own identity by dementia Oliver Sacks: On the Move, p.301
Precisely buttoned blouse Maggie O’Farrell: I am, I am, I am, p. 4
Her scarves skewered to sweaters with a silver pin Maggie O’Farrell: I am, I am, I am, p.13
The drawl and snap of the upper classes Alan Hollinghurst: The Sparsholt Affair, p. 88
A smile across the glooming mahogany of the table Alan Hollinghurst: The Sparsholt Affair, p.438
The sergeant, a tall sinewy machine, had been trained to such a pitch of frightfulness that at a moment’s warning he could divest himself of all semblance of humanity Siegfried Sassoon: Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, p.289
The clogging monotony of life in the line Siegfried Sassoon: Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, p.309
Leake and I meandered along the empty street, accompanied by our tipsy shadows Siegfried Sassoon: Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, p.415
The limitless prairies of my ignorance Siegfried Sassoon: Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, p.489
The creeping glacier of worry Richard Flanagan: First Person, p. 67
The solicitor’s dank dun-coloured room, grimed with greed Richard Flanagan: First Person, p. 169
Fondness seems a rather pastel version of love Virginia Lloyd: Girls at the Piano, p. 26
The rhythmic collapse of the waves Amy Witting: A Change in the Lighting, p.80
The harsh, virtuous smell of cleaning powder Amy Witting: A Change in the Lighting, p.137
Her mother’s quick foreboding tread Amy Witting: I for Isobel, p.12
Boredom roosting on their shoulders Amy Witting: I for Isobel, p.93