‘It was two years since I'd been in Zambia and I was looking forward to seeing Ronnie and his cousin, Pinkie’.
It was two years since I’d been in Zambia and I was looking forward to seeing Ronnie and his cousin, Pinkie. I arrived in Lusaka early in the morning and checked into the hotel before heading to their place to let them know I was around. On my way out of the hotel I ran into Leonard. He was one of…
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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.
‘When I was ten years old, my father hit my mother so hard that she suffered permanent damage to her right ear.’
‘Naturally, no partnership is perfect. Certain pieces will be at odds – you’ll have that.’
Fiction by Nico Walker.
‘Is there in fact a jostling for dominance between the art forms, some barely suppressed competitiveness?’
Adam Mars-Jones on music and ceremony.
‘Into the carrot-coloured bag, alongside my clothes, I put the box with Mama’s urn.’
An excerpt from Oksana Vasyakina’s Wound, translated from the Russian by Elina Alter.
‘My roots seemed to be in the ocean; the ocean being symbolic of my absent father.’
Memoir by Jason Allen-Paisant.
