First Impressions

This week's competition, in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, is taken from a notorious novel whose title became a byword for a practice once thought to be injurious to the participant's sight: " She was so deeply embedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise ."

The winner receives a £25 Blackwells voucher and
the closing date is 23 November .

Entries should be sent to:

First Impressions
The THES
Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield
London E1W 1BX,

faxed to 020-7782 3300
or emailed to theschat@thes.co.uk

The winner of last week's competition, who correctly identified Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure , is Carole Mallia of Nottingham.