I spent the Hezbollah war in Nigeria eating hummus in a Syrian cafe and watching...
I spent the Hezbollah war in Nigeria eating hummus in a Syrian cafe and watching rockets. Nights alone in a Kano hotel, I saw a girl grow famous on TV. I almost died in the north, you know. No you don’t. No one does but the photographer who crouched shotgun and begged the mob with hammered swords …
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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.
‘This, of course, was years before anyone knew or cared who Boko Haram was.’
‘Even in its subtler forms, the act of looking is an act of self-regard.’
‘For those caught beneath its thrum, there’s no comfort that the drone, and whoever is at its helm in America, is only targeting the bad guys.’ Eliza Griswold introduces Tomas van Houtryve's unsettling photo-essay taken by drones coming close to civilian life in the manner of the drones currently deployed in Afghanistan.
‘I think what draws me in is the spectacle of the law trying to deal with something that nothing can deal with – just the wildness of people.’
Izabella Scott in conversation with Helen Garner.
‘Parents should not have to bury their children. I will come to you, she whispers.’
Fiction by Himali McInnes.
‘Marshall was unlike anyone Orno had ever met before. He was able to converse with Mr and Mrs Pboson as though he was of their own generation.’
