Don Bridge 1948 (credit Jerripedia)

Tess fished around and pulled out thruppence.. ‘What do I say?’ she asked.
‘Just tell him your horse’s name and the amount you want to bet.’
Taking a deep breath, Tess stepped up. ‘Lilac Morning please, thruppence.’
Smiling at her the bookie said ‘Thruppence. Lilac Morning, on the nose.’ He wrote in his book and she took the slip that he handed her. Together they made their way back to the seats to wait for the race. At 10/1 Tess calculated that she stood to win half a crown when Lilac Morning romped home. Plus her thruppence back. Maybe she liked horse racing after all!
From A Jersey Midsummer’s Tale

The present day cycle track follows the lines of the old racecourse

‘It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ Hartley, The Go-Between.
‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
‘‘’Oh, sod this!’ Barry ground to a halt.’’ McCarthy, Barry.

You see? Work at it long and hard enough and pure talent will shine through. Just three words into my debut novel and there’s an exclamation mark which I now wish I’d left out. At a guess, I think I wrote that first line, that first chapter, in about 2007. It was to be several years before I embarked on Chapter 2, and started to enjoy the writing process.
That first chapter really summed up all that I wanted to say at the time. A middle-aged ex-runner gone to seed, attempting a comeback. It was at the end of that chapter that I began to realise that there was more to this writing malarkey than I might have imagined.
Then it began to dawn on me that I could write anything, that there were no boundaries. I could go off on tangents, introduce new elements, unrelated storylines which came together. New characters who were different from the somewhat one-dimensional Barry. For example, Barry’s daughters Lauren and Michelle. It was my first self-taught lesson in characterisation. Obvious now maybe, but here I found an opportunity to differentiate between two sisters. Chalk and cheese, but with common ground.
And with this gradual realisation of possibilities I began to enjoy writing, and that has continued ever since.
But a few more famous first lines:
‘Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk.’ Lewis, Elmer Gantry.
‘It was the day my grandmother exploded.’ Banks, The Crow Road.
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’ Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
‘He looked at his watch – 7.33am.’ McCarthy, A Jersey Midsummer Tale.
They just keep coming, don’t they? Have you got a favourite first line? What is one you’ve written yourself?

It’s the first one of these I’ve done since 2012 and it sure is the way to go. My hidey hole this time is the cathedral city of Winchester, a most pleasant place within easy striking distance of Jersey, and the English south coast.

My garret is an Airbnb in a terrace yards away from the remnants of Hyde Abbey where, in the year 1110, Alfred the Great was reinterred. A few yards onwards is the Hyde Tavern where, after a pint or two of strong ale, one can imagine the Saxons of old carousing and singing rugby songs.

So my days begin with a bit of a run through the spacious recreation grounds nearby, and onwards through the nature reserve along a section of the lovely River Itchen. Then a healthy breakfast in town before getting down to work.

Any blog followers who remain will know that this WIP is on the dark subject of human trafficking, particularly that of children enslaved to work in the brothels of Sonagachi, Kolkata. Whether or not anyone cares to read it, it’s a project I’ve been wanting to bring to fruition for a number of years now. And it’s going well. 10,500 words in my first three days bringing the story towards the endgame, 60,000 words in all to date.

Still plenty to do but now I can start thinking about edits, proofing etc. In particular I need some affirmations that, in writing of a location that I’ve never visited, and by writing the young female character in the first person, I’ve not made too many blunders.