Temporarily Missing Competition

Posted on | February 25, 2011 | 10 Comments

The competition isn’t what is temporarily missing… To win one of two copies of Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon (hence my post this morning about the book – how could you read it and not want to win a copy?!) please fill in the missing title to these Persephone opening lines. Email me at claire.boyle@gmail.com by Midnight GMT on Sunday 27th February with your entries.

For those of you with the beautiful The Persephone Ninety: Diary for 2011, this is going to be easier for you; each opening line of all ninety Persephone titles are quoted and each end-paper represented. Which of these openers has you desperate to read the book they come from?

1. ‘My mother was grateful/He wasn’t barefoot./His mother was grateful/I wasn’t pregnant.’

2. ‘There were too many women in Britain, as her great days of power and wealth drew towards their close.’

3. ‘June [1910]. It is at last over, this wearisome day, and dusk is beginning to sift in among the branches of the drenched chestnut tree.’

4. ‘War is an essentially masculine occupation, part of E. M. Forster’s “great outer life … in which telegrams and anger count.”‘

5. ‘Graham and Deborah Robertson lay in bed together and tried to say goodbye to each other.’

6. ‘One fine summer’s morning the sun peeped over the hills and looked down upon the valley of Silverstream.’

7. ‘”Is it a girl or a boy?” “It’s a nice little girl.”‘

8. ‘I heard today that Cynthia died, last Friday afternoon at the Ipswich County Hospital, just after a cup of tea.’

Category: Competitions, Persephone Reading Weekend
Tags: Persephone Books

Comments

10 Responses to “Temporarily Missing Competition”

Darlene
February 25th, 2011 @ 1:58 pm

Definitely #8, I’m desperate to know the rest!

Dying after a cup of tea sounds just about perfect. Imagine the disappointment of dying just as the kettle came to a boil! I’ve given myself the giggles now….

I’m going to have to give your quiz some thought and research, Claire.
motheretc
February 25th, 2011 @ 2:09 pm

I don’t think I could figure this one out, but #5 is the opening line I find most intriguing.
Cristina
February 25th, 2011 @ 2:10 pm

Ooh… this is a tough one and will take some hard work
Verity
February 25th, 2011 @ 2:27 pm

Hehe – Darlene’s comment made me laugh out loud!
Mystica
February 25th, 2011 @ 5:04 pm

Would love to enter but without any resources its going to be tough. Good luck to whoever wins. The prize is certainly worth the research.
ramblingfancy
February 25th, 2011 @ 10:05 pm

Love the photo of your Persephone diary! I’ve managed a Persephone inspired post!
Lyn
February 26th, 2011 @ 2:02 am

Great idea for a competition, isn’t the Diary beautiful? I couldn’t bring myself to write in mine. I’ve just reviewed Still Missing, here’s the link,
http://tinyurl.com/4gzsflu
Thanks for hosting the Weekend.
Persephone Round-Up #2 | Paperback Reader
February 26th, 2011 @ 1:51 pm

[...] is. To win one of two copies, please put your thinking caps on and enter my temporarily missing competition; yes, I’m not just giving them away, but with some perseverance all of the answers can be [...]
Cristina
February 26th, 2011 @ 3:16 pm

Darlene’s comment about No. 8 is hilarious!!! I think that is the most enticing one of the lot but I am also intrigued by No. 1 and 4.
kristin
February 26th, 2011 @ 5:44 pm

Yes, Darlene should get a prize for her comment! I’ve figured out all but two of these, but without a Persephone Diary to help me it’s going to be hard to get the last ones… great puzzle, though!