Page 13 | Guess the opening lines...

kinkytoes · 2026-05-14T14:02:19+00:00

Hi all, hope it's ok to start this here. Thought it might be fun and stretch the old grey matter a bit. I'll attach a shot of some opening lines and whoever guesses correctly post their own? We could all just post pics but then we might lose track. I don't mind. Let me know what you think (of the idea, and the opening lines here - hopefully started off with an easyish one but let me know if any clues are needed!) If it's being done elsewhere please someone direct me 😊

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:53

One from my A levels (a long time ago):

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:54

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:53

One from my A levels (a long time ago):

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!

Hard times?

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:55

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:51

It was the day my grandmother exploded.

The Crow Road.

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:56

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:55

The Crow Road.

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Yes! My favourite opening line.

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:58

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:54

Hard times?

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Yes!

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:59

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:56

Yes! My favourite opening line.

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It’s a brilliant opening line - and reminds me of Spinal Tap and their exploding drummer.

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:59

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 22:58

Yes!

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Was also one of my a level set texts in the 1980s.

PassengerDerby · 15/05/2026 23:16

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/05/2026 22:28

And finally for today, rather a tough one perhaps:

The men at work at the corner of the street had made a kind of camp for themselves, where, marked out by tripods hung with red hurricane-lamps, an abyss in the road led down to a network of subterranean drain-pipes. Gathered round the bucket of coke that burned in front of the shelter, several figures were swinging arms against bodies and rubbing hands together with large, pantomimic gestures: like comedians giving formal expression to the concept of extreme cold. One of them, a spare fellow in blue overalls, taller than the rest, with a jocular demeanour and long, pointed nose like that of a Shakespearian clown, suddenly stepped forward, and, as if performing a rite, cast some substance — apparently the remains of two kippers, loosely wrapped in newspaper — on the bright coals of the fire, causing flames to leap fiercely upward, smoke curling about in eddies of the north-east wind. As the dark fumes floated above the houses, snow began to fall gently from a dull sky, each flake giving a small hiss as it reached the bucket. The flames died down again; and the men, as if required observances were for the moment at an end, all turned away from the fire, lowering themselves laboriously into the pit, or withdrawing to the shadows of their tarpaulin shelter. The grey, undecided flakes continued to come down, though not heavily, while a harsh odour, bitter and gaseous, penetrated the air. The day was drawing in.

Just a guess - The Ragged-trousered Philanthopists? Have not read the book and I don't recognise the excerpt but it feels like it possibly could fit.
*Edited to correct title

pollyhemlock · 15/05/2026 23:32

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/05/2026 22:28

And finally for today, rather a tough one perhaps:

The men at work at the corner of the street had made a kind of camp for themselves, where, marked out by tripods hung with red hurricane-lamps, an abyss in the road led down to a network of subterranean drain-pipes. Gathered round the bucket of coke that burned in front of the shelter, several figures were swinging arms against bodies and rubbing hands together with large, pantomimic gestures: like comedians giving formal expression to the concept of extreme cold. One of them, a spare fellow in blue overalls, taller than the rest, with a jocular demeanour and long, pointed nose like that of a Shakespearian clown, suddenly stepped forward, and, as if performing a rite, cast some substance — apparently the remains of two kippers, loosely wrapped in newspaper — on the bright coals of the fire, causing flames to leap fiercely upward, smoke curling about in eddies of the north-east wind. As the dark fumes floated above the houses, snow began to fall gently from a dull sky, each flake giving a small hiss as it reached the bucket. The flames died down again; and the men, as if required observances were for the moment at an end, all turned away from the fire, lowering themselves laboriously into the pit, or withdrawing to the shadows of their tarpaulin shelter. The grey, undecided flakes continued to come down, though not heavily, while a harsh odour, bitter and gaseous, penetrated the air. The day was drawing in.

This is the opening of A Question of Upbringing, the first in Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time sequence.

clary · 15/05/2026 23:33

I don’t think anyone has said this:
Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.

It’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which for some impenetrable reason is a GCSE set text (DD studied it in her final year of her Eng lit degree).

I’ll offer
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, but he wasn’t a bad sort

clary · 15/05/2026 23:34

Also (as someone has already said The Great Gatsby and P&P, two of my faves, here's another:

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.
(not very challenging perhaps)

Another fave (rather harder?)
And by the way,” said Mr. Hankin, arresting Miss Rossiter as she rose to go, “there is a new copy-writer coming in today.”
“Oh, yes, Mr. Hankin?”
“His name is Bredon. I can't tell you much about him; Mr. Pym engaged him himself; but you will see that he is looked after.”

BuntyBeaufort · 15/05/2026 23:36

“A mighty fist of wind socked the balloon in two rapid blows, one- two, the second more vicious than the first. It jerked Gadd right out of the basket on to the ground, and with Gadd’s considerable weight removed from the equation lifted the ballooon five feet or so straight into the air”.
From possibly the finest opening chapter of any novel I’ve ever read .

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 23:37

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 22:59

Was also one of my a level set texts in the 1980s.

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1984?

Guess what else was on the list 🤔

HelenaWilson · 15/05/2026 23:38

And by the way,” said Mr. Hankin, arresting Miss Rossiter as she rose to go, “there is a new copy-writer coming in today.”
“Oh, yes, Mr. Hankin?”
“His name is Bredon. I can't tell you much about him; Mr. Pym engaged him himself; but you will see that he is looked after.”

Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy L. Sayers

clary · 15/05/2026 23:41

Spot on @HelenaWilson another DLS fan I suspect :)

clary · 15/05/2026 23:42

BuntyBeaufort · 15/05/2026 23:36

“A mighty fist of wind socked the balloon in two rapid blows, one- two, the second more vicious than the first. It jerked Gadd right out of the basket on to the ground, and with Gadd’s considerable weight removed from the equation lifted the ballooon five feet or so straight into the air”.
From possibly the finest opening chapter of any novel I’ve ever read .

Is this that Ian McEwan novel about the balloon? Enduring Love?

ShanghaiDiva · 15/05/2026 23:57

clary · 15/05/2026 23:34

Also (as someone has already said The Great Gatsby and P&P, two of my faves, here's another:

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.
(not very challenging perhaps)

Another fave (rather harder?)
And by the way,” said Mr. Hankin, arresting Miss Rossiter as she rose to go, “there is a new copy-writer coming in today.”
“Oh, yes, Mr. Hankin?”
“His name is Bredon. I can't tell you much about him; Mr. Pym engaged him himself; but you will see that he is looked after.”

Edited

first one is the secret history.

clary · 15/05/2026 23:59

@ShanghaiDiva I guess Bunny is a giveaway. I do think it’s a brilliant opening line. And yet somehow you forget that that is going to happen as you read on…

ShanghaiDiva · 16/05/2026 00:01

SabrinaThwaite · 15/05/2026 23:37

1984?

Guess what else was on the list 🤔

Show quote history

Hard Times was coursework. Exam texts were Emma, King Lear, The Crucible and Songs of Innocence and Experience. Loved them all!

HelenaWilson · 16/05/2026 00:03

another DLS fan I suspect

Yes indeed.

Last one for this evening:

In summer all right-minded boys built huts in the furze-hill behind the College—little lairs whittled out of the heart of the prickly bushes, full of stumps, odd root-ends, and spikes, but, since they were strictly forbidden, palaces of delight.

SabrinaThwaite · 16/05/2026 00:41

ShanghaiDiva · 16/05/2026 00:01

Hard Times was coursework. Exam texts were Emma, King Lear, The Crucible and Songs of Innocence and Experience. Loved them all!

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I get mixed up between which were O level and which were A level texts (‘1984’ was definitely A level in 1984!), but I remember ‘Hard Times’, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, ‘Waiting for Godot’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘A Winter’s Tale’, Keats’ poetry, ‘Howard’s End’, ‘The White Devil’. I’m sure there were more.

ETA: ‘Death of a Salesman’ was another.

OrangeOpalFruits · 16/05/2026 01:19

1986 A levels were also Catch 22, The Prelude, King Lear...

OrangeOpalFruits · 16/05/2026 01:52

So the children are not down yet?

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 16/05/2026 04:39

pollyhemlock · 15/05/2026 23:32

This is the opening of A Question of Upbringing, the first in Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time sequence.

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Yes! Possibly time to re-read all twelve.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 16/05/2026 07:22

Talking of English set books, my school entered us only for O and A levels set by the Joint Matriculation Board (federation of North of England universities). For O level English Literature we did Romeo and Juliet, a selection of Browning and Lord of the Flies. For A level, Hamlet, King Lear, a selection from The Canterbury Tales, Rape of the Lock, Wreck of the Deutschland, Emma, A Handful of Dust and a selection of T. S. Eliot including The Wasteland. I think it was either/or for the Shakespeare and the long narrative poems and we were probably also over-prepared for the others, so we would have a choice. Happy days! Confirmed me in my view I didn't want to do English at university though. I prefer just reading for pleasure.