‘It could almost have been Neolithic, an ancient and mysterious earthworks.’
If you were minded to visit Airds Moss—and I wouldn’t discourage it because anywhere else and it would be in a tourist guide, and it’s interesting, if you’ve a taste for ambivalent places—you could turn off the lorry-laden A70 a few miles west of Powharnal opencast mine, and follow the B-r…
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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.
‘I liked the way she travelled: with her iPod in one pocket, her traditional Yup’ik woman’s knife, or ulu, in the other.’
‘It felt surprisingly good to be part of that rough tribe of the mortal.’
‘Restored nature would be a phantom of its former self. The experience would be akin to visiting a wildlife park.’
‘Think of mitosis as trillions of slightly near-sighted, plagiarizing students’
Chigozie Obioma on Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, the best book of 2014.
