Clare and I popped into a branch of Costa in Gloucester when we had some time to kill. We’d had a great day, save my ruining a top with a crashed motorcyclist’s blood. Still, dude was fine when the ambulance arrived … his bike wasn’t though. Interestingly enough, the speedometer showed that he’d taken a tight bend at 38 mph … during a rainstorm. That’ll be how he ended up crashing in front of me then …

Anyway, I was ordering the drinks, and noticed a collection of these books propped up by the till. Now, I’m such a heathen that I didn’t even realise that the Costa Award was the new name for the Whitbread Prize, and you’ll have noticed from my previous posts in this thread that I’m not somebody who ever reads fiction … I’m also terribly fidgety, so proceeded to thumb through this collection of excerpts (one chapter each) of this year’s five winners whilst waiting for the chap to prepare a hot chocolate and coffee.

First page I opened (page 41) featured the dedication ‘For Clare’. I smiled at the coincidence, and jumped to another page. This one (page 31) opens with the line “‘Mummy, you just said the F-word,’ Jochen said.”

This was too much to leave; Clare’s name, then the mention of ‘F-word’ (she *never* uses the F-word). So I bought it. Cost: £1.

Excerpt 1:

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

I’ll be buying this one! I really, really enjoyed this opening chapter. Very well written, the stage is set very effectively. I finished the excerpt before I realised any time had passed, and was irked that there wasn’t any more.

Excerpt 2:

Restless by William Boyd

Yup, I’ll be buying this one too! Quite clear why this author is a prize-winner, I zoomed through this one too. Was pleasantly surprised to read the main character losing her temper at a trucker saying: ‘If you got your fat gut out the way, it’d be a lot easier, you f g ar le.’ Didn’t expect that in an esteemed book!

The other excerpts didn’t please me at all. I can’t stand poetry anyway; it’s a lost artform on me. The other two were a children’s book (no attraction to me) and a biography; during the sole chapter, I repeatedly last track of whom is who seeing as the author introduces so many names.

Still, this was a great buy for a quid. And it achieved its aim; Mr ‘Fiction has no place on my bookshelf’ will now be buying two works of, yes, fiction.

Tags: Costa, Restless, Stef Penney, The Tenderness Of Wolves, William Boyd

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