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Favourite First Lines from Fiction

Curated by

Rhian Pritchard

Have you ever been wooed by the first line of a book? Have you ever settled in to read, got as far as the first sentence, and immediately gone ‘Oh, I’m going to love this book’? We definitely have!

 

Inspired by The Bookshop Band’s amazing song ‘Once Upon a Time’ which is made up almost completely from the first lines of famous books, we shared some of the first lines of our favourite books on Twitter and Instagram, and seeing if our followers could guess which books they were from!

 

Check it out here.

 

The answers are below, so if you haven’t already had a guess, don’t scroll down!

 

If you have, these are the first lines of these books:

 

Circe – “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.”

 

The Starless Sea – “There is a pirate in the dungeon.”

 

High-Rise Mystery – “If you think finding a body is a fun adventure, you’re 33% right.”

 

Early Riser – “Mrs Tiffen could play the bazouki.”

 

Leonard and Hungry Paul – “Leonard was raised by his mother with cheerfully concealed difficulty, his father having died tragically during childbirth.”

 

Heap House – “It all really began, all the terrible business that followed, on the day my Aunt Rosamud’s door handle went missing.”

Get 15% off when you buy all the books on the list

All books on this list £58.94 £50.09

Out of Stock
  • Circe
    Madeline Miller
    £8.99
    Add to basket
  • The Starless Sea
    Erin Morgenstern
    £16.99
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  • High-Rise Mystery
    Sharna Jackson
    £6.99
    Add to basket
  • Early Riser
    Jasper Fforde
    £8.99
    Add to basket
  • LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL
    Ronan Hession
    £8.99
    Add to basket
  • Heap House
    Edward Carey
    £7.99
    Add to basket
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