First impressions

This week's First Impressions, the competition in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, marks the Labour conference with the only book by a politician who would have been celebrating an extremely big birthday if still alive this year: "In many ways it would have been better for a book of this sort to have been written by a person detached from day-to-day preoccupation with political affairs. Yet, as I come to write, I begin to see that there are advantages possessed by a political practitioner like myself that are denied to anyone living a more cloistered life."

Entries should be submitted to First Impressions, The THES, Admiral House,66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY, faxed to 0171 782 3300 or emailed to theschat@thes.co.ukThe winner receives a Pounds 20 book token and the closing date is September 30. Last week's winner, who correctly identified Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, is C.W.Watson of the University of Kent.