Tag Archives: first paragraph

Great Opening Paragraph 126… ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ #amwriting #FirstPara

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens Charles Dickens
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Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne 
Beloved’ by Toni Morrison 
‘1984’ by George Orwell 

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#FirstPara A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens #amwriting https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4ej via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 124… ‘The Camomile Lawn’ #amwriting #FirstPara

“Helena Cuthbertson picked up the crumpled Times by her sleeping husband and went to the flower room to iron it.”
‘The Camomile Lawn’ by Mary WesleyMary Wesley
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Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Ernest Hemingway 
A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr
Back When We Were Grown-Ups’ by Anne Tyler 

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#FirstPara THE CAMOMILE LAWN by Mary Wesley #amwriting https://wp.me/p5gEM4-48b via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 123… ‘The Ashes of London’ #amwriting #FirstPara

“The noise was the worst. Not the crackling of the flames, not the explosions and the clatter of falling buildings, not the shouting and the endless beating of drums and the groans and cries of the crowd: it was the howling of the fire. It roared its rage. It was the voice of the Great Beast itself.”
‘The Ashes of London’ by Andrew Taylor, #1 Fire of London Andrew TaylorBUY THE BOOK

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Personal’ by Lee Child
Back When We Were Grown Ups’ by Anne Tyler 
The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes 

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THE ASHES OF LONDON by Andrew Taylor #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Jn via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 122… ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ #amwriting #FirstPara

‘Long before we discovered that he had fathered two children by two different women, one in Drimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore.’
‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne John BoyneBUY THE BOOK

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ by Tan Twan Eng 
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘Couples’ by John Updike

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THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES by @john_boyne #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Jk via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 119… ‘Peter Pan’ #amwriting #FirstPara

JM Barrie“All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up. And the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, ‘Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
‘Peter Pan’ by JM Barrie
Amazon

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr 
These Foolish Things’ by Deborah Moggach 
Far From the Madding Crowd’ by Thomas Hardy 

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PETER PAN by JM Barrie #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Jw via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 117… ‘Personal’ #amwriting #FirstPara

Lee Child‘Eight days ago my life was an up and down affair. Some of it good. Some of it not so good. Most of it uneventful. Long slow periods of nothing much, with occasional bursts of something. Like the army itself. Which is how they found me. You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you. Not always. Not completely.’
‘Personal’ by Lee Child
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Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Sea Glass’ by Anita Shreve
‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon
‘American Psycho’ by Brett Easton Ellis

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PERSONAL by @LeeChildReacher #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3gI via @SandraDanby

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Great Opening Paragraph 116… ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ #amwriting #FirstPara

Patrick Hamilton“London, the crouching monster, like every other monster has to breathe, and breathe it does in its own obscure, malignant way. Its vital oxygen is composed of suburban working men and women of all kinds, who every morning are sucked up through an infinitely complicated respiratory apparatus of trains and termini into the mighty congested lungs, held there for a number of hours, and then, in the evening, exhaled violently through the same channels.”
‘The Slaves of Solitude’ by Patrick Hamilton
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Read my review of The Slaves of Solitude.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Reading Turgenev/Two Lives’ by William Trevor
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘The Ghost Road’ by Pat Barker

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THE SLAVES OF SOLITUDE by Patrick Hamilton #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2AD

Great Opening Paragraph 115… ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ #amwriting #FirstPara

Tan Twan Eng“On a mountain above the clouds once lived a man who had been the gardener of the Emperor of Japan. Not many people would have known of him before the war, but I did. He had left his home on the rim of the sunrise to come to the central highlands of Malaya. I was seventeen years old when my sister first told me about him. A decade would pass before I travelled up to the mountains to see him.”
‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ by Tan Twan Eng
Amazon

Read my review of The Garden of Evening Mists.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Armadillo’ by William Boyd
‘To Have and Have Not’ by Ernest Hemingway
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard

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THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS by Tan Twan Eng #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2AL

Great Opening Paragraph 112… ‘Affinity’ #amwriting #FirstPara

Sarah Waters“3 August 1873. I was never so frightened as I am now. They have left me sitting in the dark, with only the light from the window to write by. They have put me in my own room, they have locked the door on me. They wanted Ruth to do it, but she would not. She said ‘What, do you want me to lock up my own mistress, who has done nothing?’ In the end the doctor took the key from her & locked the door himself, then made her leave me. Now the house is full of voices, all saying my name. If I close my eyes & listen it might be any ordinary night. I might be waiting for Mrs Brink to come & take me down to a dark circle, & Madeleine or any girl might be there, blushing, thinking of Peter, of Peter’s great dark whiskers & shining hands.’
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters [UK: Virago]
Amazon

Click here to read my review of The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Illywhacker’ by Peter Carey
‘Sophie’s World’ by Jostein Gaarder
‘Goldfinger’ by Ian Fleming

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AFFINITY by Sarah Waters @ViragoBooks #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2qR

Great Opening Paragraph 111… ‘Reading Turgenev’ #amwriting #FirstPara

William Trevor“A woman, not yet fifty-seven, slight and seeming frail, eats carefully at a table in a corner. Her slices of buttered bread have been halved for her, her fried egg mashed, her bacon cut. ‘Well, this is happiness!’ she murmurs aloud, but none of the other women in the dining room replies because none of them is near enough to hear. She’s privileged, the others say, being permitted to occupy on her own the bare-topped table in the corner. She has her own salt and pepper.”
‘Reading Turgenev’ from ‘Two Lives’ by William Trevor
Amazon

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen
‘Dance Dance Dance’ by Haruki Murakami

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TWO LIVES by William Trevor #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2qN