‘It was a clear, uncomplicated space, a brand image, a label that could be stuck on a billion sauce bottles.’
On the morning last December that Tony O’Reilly spoke at a conference in Belfast, his own newspaper the Irish Independent ran two full pages about the event. One of them was dominated by a stark black-and-white advertisement. At its centre was a map of Ireland. Around the map was the distinctive t…
Sign in to Granta.com.
‘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.
‘Those who control the image of the monarchy did not then know the power of indifference.’
‘There they found a man and a woman dressed in face masks, rubber gloves and white coats standing behind a white table on which were placed an assortment of tools’
A journalist receives a troubling call about a friend in this excerpt from Madeleine Bunting’s new novel Ceremony of Innocence.
‘Pictures from some cities in Latin America: the burning in front of the family home of the dead who are not collected by the state.’
A coronavirus diary from the Portuguese writer Gonçalo M. Tavares, translated by Daniel Hahn.
