We had a fantastic response to our favourite first lines competition, launched in July to celebrate a first of our own – Oxfam’s first book festival, Bookfest.
More than 160 people told us the first lines closest to their hearts and why. It was hard to pick a winner out of such great entries! We really loved that a few of you offered the opening lines to your own unpublished novels – thanks and best of luck to these aspiring authors.
A big congrats to the winner, Judith Allen, who scored a hamper of Cafédirect’s award-winning coffees and teas, plus a grinder and cafetiere, worth over £100. She nominated the first line from Iain Banks’s The Crow Road as her favourite: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.” You can read more about this winning entry here.
So, what other lines caught your imagination and wouldn’t let go?
The wonderful opening sentence from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca topped the list of favourites, just edging out George Orwell’s 1984 and Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities by a couple of votes. The classics were well-represented, with Pride and Prejudice and Moby-Dick also high on the list. More modern texts, like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Ox-Tales contributor Mark Haddon, also got a look in.
Check out the list below for more, and let us know in the comments if you agree with these popular picks or if your fave is missing.
1. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
2. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
1984, George Orwell
3. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
4. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
5. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
The Bible
6. “Call me Ishmael.”
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
7. “Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
8 (last four received equal votes). “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.”
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
‘It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’s house. Its eyes were closed.”
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
Tags: Bookfest 2009, Cafédirect, favourite first lines competition, Ox-Tales
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