Tags

Ouch! I've been tagged, twice (and I'll be getting to yours, Simon, but you'll have to admit that this one is, well, less demanding). This post is a response to Elizabeth Baines' tag from a few days ago. These are the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

It's slightly embarrassing because the nearest book to my computer just happens to be my own novel. Believe me when I say that this is less a measure of my self-obsession than of a general state of disorder. Most books in my study are piled on the table behind me. Little Monsters, for some reason I can't remember now, just happens to be lying beneath a pile of FAO reports I'm trying to work on. So:

The Turks who need help are standing near the window: a young couple with a girl, three or four years old, who clings to her father, pulling his jacket, too large for him, off his shoulder. they look hot: they are wearing far too many clothes for this time of year - it's still humid out and has barely begun to cool towards autumn. When Flavio gestures to him, the man speaks, in broken English, while the woman and child step back, and listen.

However, as maybe my own book doesn't really count, I'll reach a little further and take the second nearest as well. And it's Words from a Glass Bubble by Vanessa Gebbie, which I still haven't started reading, and am looking forward to very much. So, I open it at page 123 and what do I find?

I wanted to leave you, she said. So many times.
Bren looked at him in their kitchen and named them; the men she would have left him for.

That ought to whet your appetite; it's certainly whetted mine. Unfortunately, I can't tag Vanessa, because Elizabeth already has, so here are my five:

Chancelucky

David Isaak

Kay Sexton

Linda Grant

Simon Barraclough

Go for it!