So Newton, like all good seventeenth-century intellectuals, wrote in Latin because that was the international language of science, philosophy and, I found out later, upmarket pornography.
Seawoll sat in the executive leather operator’s chair behind the desk wearing a dangerously stretched noddy suit that made him look like the Michelin Man’s slightly deflated older brother.
Lesley said that my exes knew that past a certain point I’d lost interest, and that’s why they always packed me in first. That’s not the way I remember it, but Lesley swore she could have constructed...
Jazz vampires,' said Stephanopoulos.'I wish I hadn't started calling them that,' I said.
If you overdo it, there are consequences.What kind of consequences?Strokes, brain hemorrhages, aneurysms...How do you know when you have overdone it?When you have a stroke, brain hemorrhage or an aneu...
I know it’s hard, Peter, she’d said. But if you could contain your erudition and ready wit for just a little while we’d be most grateful. Am I allowed to be cheeky? I’d asked. No you’re fucking not, s...
I don’t like my bacon sandwich to be curiously snuffling at my fingers.
He’s been banned,’ said Lesley. ‘Until he passes the advanced driver’s course.’ ‘Is that because you crashed that ambulance into the river?’ asked Abigail.
He was transparent, the way holograms in films are transparent.Three dimensional, definitely really there and fucking...transparent.
Even in these days of eBay and superencrypted anonymous purchasing over the Internet, the safest way to buy stolen stuff is to meet a total stranger and hand over a wedge of untraceable cash. They don...
„— Vrei să fii vrăjitor, a zis.— Nu ştiu.— Mincinosule. Vrei să-i fii ucenic şi să înveţi magia şi să călăreşti pe o mătură.— Nu prea cred că vrăjitorii adevăraţi călăresc mături.
But the first rule about a black woman’s hair is you don’t talk about a black woman’s hair. And the second rule is you don’t ever touch a black woman’s hair without getting written permission first. A...
You never said you used to play Dungeon and Dragons, Lesley had said when I explained my reasoning. I’d been tempted to tell her that I was thirteen at the time, and anyway it was Call of Cthulhu, but...
The white boys knew they had my attention now, but hesitated -- that's the trouble with being a racist in the white heartlands, you don't get a lot of practical experience.
The bouncer scrutinized my face. Do I know you? he asked. No, I thought, but you might remember me from such Saturday-night hits as Would you please put that punter down I’d like to arrest him, You ca...
THE TROUBLE with the old boy network is you can never be really sure whether it’s switched on or not and whether it’s operating in your interest or some other old boy’s.
So into the woods we went—it was surprisingly noisy. Especially one loud bird whose chirping sounded far too cheerful for the middle of the night.
She was slender and dressed like an Edwardian maid, complete with a starched white bib apron over a full black skirt and white cotton blouse. Her face didn’t fit her outfit, being too long and sharp-b...
Once the telephone had been invented, it was only a matter of time before the police got in on the new technology and, first in Glasgow and then in London, the police box was born. Here a police offic...
My mum translated this in her head to witchfinder, which was good because like most West Africans, she considered witchfinding a more respectable profession than policeman.