First Impressions

This week's competition, in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, is from a novelist and poet who started out as an architect:

"The rambler who, for old association's sake, should trace the forsaken coach-road running in a meridional line from Bristol to the south shore of England, would find himself..."

The winner receives a £25 book voucher. The closing date is January 6.

Entries, including postal address, 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 identified Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year , is Kathy Fowler of Aberdeen.

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