It was 1972 when my father interviewed Germaine Greer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney. I was eight at the time, and although I had heard of his guest, I certainly didn’t have enough interest in what she had to say to actually sit and listen to his programme. But then, I never…
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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.
‘After all, it was only politics, and I was too young to understand.’
‘The eye wants to see its fill, the I wants to see how it feels.’
Saskia Vogel on the foundational stories of pornography.
‘The only thing that was clear was that the square would be full, and Opantish had to be ready.’
An excerpt from Yasmin El-Rifae’s account of the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath, Radius.
‘By the time I was in my teens, I had taken up an existence framed by a double negative: not male, not white.’
An excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s essay collection, Black and Female.
‘It is easy, when we are young, to have ideals and to live according to them.’
An excerpt from Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born.
‘Do yourself a favour: do not read Laura Erber’s ‘That Wind Blowing through the Plaza’ only once.’
