‘Master Peachling,’ called a pheasant, ‘Where are you going?’
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‘Master Peachling,’ called a pheasant, ‘Where are you going?’
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
David Peace is the author of the Red Riding Quartet, GB84, The Damned Utd, Tokyo Year Zero, and Red or Dead. He was one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2003, and has received the James Tait Memorial Prize. He lives in Tokyo.
More about the author →‘When we talk about history, the dangers of embellishment, fabrication and wilful distortion are ever-present’
‘The song, the voice, and the heat; men on their knees, heads in hands, sobbing and now howling.’
‘The finance officers read the answers in silence, then returned them to be burned.’
‘Otome games are about women writing romance plots designed to please women – paper hubbies and their voice actors are just a conduit to make the experience more believable.’
Yun Sheng on the rise of virtual love in China.
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