‘Spending the first half of my life in the Chilterns, in southern England’s chalk country, I grew up with yews.’
Spending the first half of my life in the Chilterns, in southern England’s chalk country, I grew up with yews. Not churchyard trees, but the bristly, mahogany-trunked nonconformists of the downs and beechwoods. They hunch among the grey-trunked beeches like dark Jack-in-the-Greens. Their seedlings…
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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.
‘It’s always been like this for me with spirituality. I catch a whiff of the numinous, and it turns visceral in a moment.’
‘We claimed the places that were theirs and they were forced to take refuge on what we left behind.’
An excerpt from In Search of One Last Song.
‘Does it make you a little ghostly yourself, when what’s gone is more present for you than what’s here?’
‘We’ve always been entwined in life and in death with other creatures, although often too much time has elapsed to be able to interpret with any certainty what some of these symbols and artefacts mean.’
‘Some days Darwin can’t work out how long he in the city.’
An excerpt from Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel.
