… and you won’t end with a whimper. Common writing advice, based on the final stanza of TS Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men’:

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Interviewers often ask me what part of the writing process I find the most challenging, and my answer is always the opening and closing lines of a book. The opening lines are particularly important because they must set the tone for the story and hook the reader’s interest. Think about it: when you’re in a bookstore and browsing for a novel to purchase, what helps you make that decision? The cover, certainly, and the back cover copy. The price is also a factor. But the words within, which will take you on a journey lasting several hours, are most important. You make a judgement on whether those words are a good fit for your tastes and needs based on turning to page one and reading the beginning.

This week I enjoyed reading an article in the Telegraph collating some of the best opening lines in literature. They included some of my own favourites:

• ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
• ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
• ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.’ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
• ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ LP Hartley, The Go-Between
• ‘All children, except one, grow up.’ JM Barrie, Peter Pan
• ‘It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.’ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
• ‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.’ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Perfection, don’t you think? Even typing these quotations out makes me want to take down each book from my shelf and read further.

Having studied literature at university, I knew well the importance of first lines when I came to write my own romance novels. Here is the opening of my debut novel, Burning Embers:

In just four sentences I convey the character’s name and age and something of her appearance; the background to the story ­– that Coral should have married; the beautiful setting and quiet atmosphere (silvery, misty, fresh, soft); and finally a glimpse of Coral’s emotional state, with words like ‘solitary’, ‘upright’ and ‘clenching’.

Here is the beginning of The Echoes of Love:

In this opening I wanted to create quite a different mood to that of Burning Embers­– the hour is late, and in the air there is both mystery and an undercurrent of darkness and imminent threat (Coral will soon be attacked). The inclusion of the mask and the reflected image hints at the importance of illusion as a key theme in the story.

Finally, here is how my new novel, Indiscretion, begins:

In this book, I wanted to ground the initial story in its London setting, so making Alexandra’s move to Spain in the novel a real wrench. Again, I tell you some key facts about the character – her name and her profession. She is a romance author, and a troubled one at that;­she has been sleeping badly. In addition, the word ‘shrill’ stands out as jarring and unpleasant; whoever has rung the doorbell is about to disturb the peace…

What do you think of my book openings? Do they make you want to read on? Do you have a favourite first line from literature? I would love to hear your thoughts.