It was all going so well, and then the pandemic… — My wife and I are watching Emily In Paris and I’m thinking to myself, I know this world, I’ve been among those types. Go back 10 years and I wouldn’t have been able to say that — the viewing experience would have been different. 10 years ago I still had…

The art of editing is like brass shining. It takes a dull, lifeless surface, marked with blemishes, and rubs it all up bright and clear. — When I was a boy I loved to sit at the kitchen table with a bottle of Brasso and various golden household objects in front of me. …

Claud briefly considers answering, “You.” He imagines there really are men who can behave like movie actors and say such things, but he is not one of them, even when wearing sunglasses. — #49 Claud was impressed with himself. He had meant to ask Lindsay if she had a street map of the city, but he had already managed without one and found his way back to the bookshop with ease, retracing the steps he had taken on the previous day.

Usually the work of his favourite poet, the esteemed Berevsky, in the original language. — #48 Georg rose a good hour earlier than his wife, Hani, and went to bed a good hour later. It had always been like that. Since Hani’s health scare there were often days when two or even three hours would elapse before she came through from the bedroom. Georg started…

She is up, dressed and ready for action nearly an hour earlier than necessary. — #47 Yulia slept only fitfully on her first night in the hotel, worried her alarm might not wake her. She was up, dressed and ready for action nearly an hour earlier than necessary. She had been told to report to the kitchen where she would be on breakfast duty till…

“I think you’d be good at it,” Jamie tells her. — #46 Jamie put the phone down. “What was that all about?” “Some work.” “What do you mean ‘some’ work?” “Just some work.” “Your job you mean?” “My other job.” “Your other job?” “Look, I sometimes do a bit of freelance.” “And you get time off for it?” “Yes, it’s the…

“Keep em on in the shower, it’ll look cool.” Claud smirked then went through to his room. — #45 “Fuck me, look what a day au continentale can do for a man. Very chic I’m sure. Love the shades.” Claud took them off, and Lindsay was able to see that the transformation was very superficial. …

She tells him her story and discomforts him with a request. — #44 Gibson tidied his consulting room. It had only occasional use, as he much preferred to attend to patients in their homes. The twins’ mother had been most insistent that she come and see him, rather than the other way around. The arrangement Gibson had with the medical authority that…

The waitress leans across the counter, reaching for something on the other side, like a snooker player straining to take a shot without resorting to a rest. — #43 The town quayside was much larger than Claud had expected. Soon after leaving the bookshop he had stumbled off a kerbstone, spraining his ankle, causing him to walk with a slight limp. It was nothing serious and would wear off quickly he knew, but he had been hoping to…