Spielwiese

Willie Garvin has an appropriate quote from the Psalms of David for any occasion. We have to assume that Peter O'Donnell also must have known his Psalms well, though not, perhaps, from time spent in gaol. With one exception, all the quotations are accurate or close paraphrases.

Black text refers to the books and short stories, blue text to the strips.

Modesty Blaise

[Chapter 8, Willie asks Tarrant to help him.]

“Cheer up, my old darling.” Willie’s manner was light, but there was still the underlying tension. “ ’Eaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
Tarrant stared. “I beg your pardon?”
“Psalm 30. Verse 5”.
“You-ah-you have another calling, then?”
“’Ardly a calling. But I once spent a year in the coop at Calcutta with only a psalter to read, so I got the psalms by ’eart.”

Willie quotes the same verse at the end of The Long Lever, panel 211.
And in Brethren of Blaise, panel 4927.

[Chapter 11]

“Be’old,” Willie’s voice intoned from the doorway. “Be’old ’ow good and ’ow pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psalm hundred and thirty-three. Verse one.”

[Modesty Blaise chapter 13]

As the door closed Tarrant relaxed a little and rubbed his eyes with finger and thumb. ‘I suppose she might listen to him,’ he said.
Willie took out a cigarette and offered one amiably to Albert Alexandrou. ‘Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,’ he said, ‘which will not ’earken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Psalm fifty-eight, verse four.’

[At the end of chapter 20, the tables are turned:]

‘I think not,’ Tarrant answered. ‘Not under the circumstances. After all “… they have seen the ungodly in great power; and flourishing like a green bay tree.” Psalm thirty-seven.’
Willie stared incredulously. ‘I never knew you’d been in the coop,’ he said, and Hagan laughed.

Sabre Tooth

[Chapter 2, Willie has just passed a police car at an illegal speed, but pretends the police car has a wobbly wheel.]

‘You made a good recovery,’ Tarrant said with dry amusement. ‘What happens if they come after you when they find nothing wrong?’
‘I’ll do me righteous bit. That wheel looked a bit wobbly to me, and I was only trying to ’elp. “The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” Psalm ninety-two, verse twelve.’

[Chapter 5, when Willie is told how to placate a Mother Superior:]

Relief swept the clouds from Willie’s brow. ‘Keep me as the apple of an eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings,’ he said gratefully. ‘Psalm seventeen, verse eight. Are we going to eat now?’

I, Luizifer

[After the snooker game in chapter 7:]

‘Lovely,’ said Willie, and put his cue in the rack. ‘ “They ’ave digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves,” like a couple of right pills. Psalm 57, Verse 6. Not the last bit.’

A Taste for Death

[Chapter 19] Dinah ran her hands down her cheeks. ‘You’re kidding,’ she said. ‘I’ve shrunk too much to be beautiful. My bust’s shrunk too, so I can’t even look sexy.’
Willie grinned. ‘You’re fine,’ he said gently. ‘ “… The little hills rejoice on every side.” Psalm 65, verse 11.’