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Full Disclosure

Zoë Heller

‘The speech he gave was bellicose. It was time, he told the people in the conference room, for them to pull their socks up.’

Two Dead in Car Blast

Lynda Schuster

‘I can write about this now only because enough time has passed.’

Writing for Nobody

Eric Jacobs

‘I have often wondered whether anybody ever read what I wrote.’

Here Come the Tanks

Patrick Wright

‘In these civilian circumstances, unhampered by any opposition from aircraft, landmines, artillery or other tanks, the tank seems unstoppable.’

TV is Good for You

Dan Jacobson

‘Television is constantly accused of encouraging apathy, sloth, passivity, illiteracy, mindlessness and docility among those who are addicted to watching it.’

Meat Country

J.M. Coetzee

‘It is eccentric not to eat meat in the United States, doubly so in Texas.’

Idi’s Banquet

Giles Foden

‘I did almost nothing on my first day as Idi Amin's doctor.’

People Eaters

Joan Smith

‘In 1777, a butcher's assistant from Cheshire, Samuel Thorley, was tried for murder at Chester Assizes.’

Attempt at an Inventory

Georges Perec

‘Nine beers, two Tuborgs, four Guinnesses.’

Aphrodisiacs I Have Known

Norman Lewis

‘In the winter of 1957, I went to Liberia for the New Yorker.’

The Sins of the Flesh

Margaret Visser

‘The message that vegetarianism imparts to the rest of us is ascetic and exclusive.’

Do Women Like to Cook?

Laura Shapiro

‘Until recently, the question 'Do women like to cook?' wouldn't have been asked and couldn't have been answered.’

What Bengali Widows Cannot Eat

Chitrita Banerji

‘Spring in Bengal is teasing and elusive, secret yet palpable, waiting to be discovered.’

Stringhoppers

Romesh Gunesekera

‘In 1956, my father was thirty-nine years old. He didn't even know how to boil an egg.’