Free The Book of Other People by Zadie Smith Page B

duties I am often found making the statement ‘I don’t believe in patterns.’ A butterfly on a pin has no idea what a pretty shape it makes.
    ‘He never settled,’ said Hanwell, ‘and now he’s come to the end of the road,’ a quaint metaphor, like those that Borges enjoyed, and we, equally, interpreted it literally, thinking of Brighton pier, Brighton being Hanwell country for us, and the place where Hanwell’s people generally died. When I was a kid, I had a dream - never forgotten! - of the cool, flat Brighton pebbles being placed over my body, as the Jews place stones on top of their dead; piled up and up over my corpse, until I was entirely buried and families came to picnic over me, not knowing, for I was Brighton bedrock now, as Hanwells had been (in my dream logic) since there were Hanwells in England. There have always been Hanwells in England. But I am a female Hanwell and lost my name when I married.

J. Johnson
    Nick Hornby, with illustrations by Posy Simmonds
    A Writing Life
     
    JAMIE JOHNSON was born in 1955, in Southend, Essex. He studied English at Cambridge University, and has contributed to the TLS , the Literary Review , the Independent and Mojo . This is his first book. He lives in North London.

    JAMIE JOHNSON is the author of JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH, a memoir about sex addiction, which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book award. He was born in 1955 in Southend, Essex, and has contributed to Esquire , Playboy and Nuts . He lives in Essex with his wife and two children. (CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTION is his first novel.

    JAMES JOHNSON rereads the poems of John Donne every year. He is the author of two previous books, and has been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book award. He has contributed to the TLS , the Literary Review and the Independent . He is currently a Visiting Writer at Essex University, and lives just outside Shoeburyness with his wife and four children. HOW DRY A CINDER is his second novel.
     
JIM JOHNSON is the author of several books for adults, including HOW DRY A CINDER, a historical novel about the last years of the poet John Donne, which was longlisted for the John Donne Prize. He lives in Hartlepool in the North-East of England with his wife, five children, two cats, one dog, two gerbils called Romulus and Remus, and Dylan the goldfish. This is his first children’s book.

    ANNIE GREEN is an artist, and the illustrator of the much loved Elvis the Elephant series. She too lives in the North-East of England, with a large menagerie including a snake. She drives an old 2CV called Poppy.
     
    J. THOMAS JOHNSON is the author of several books. He has worked as a bartender, lumberjack, nightclub bouncer, pearl-fisherman, police-dog trainer, professional wrestler, private detective, Nepalese tour-guide, assassin, and writer-in-residence at a number of British universities. He has been fascinated by the Alaskan wilderness ever since he was a child. He lives with his partner, the illustrator Annie Green, just outside Hartlepool in the North-East of England.

    Five things you didn’t know about JIMMY JOHNSON :
    1. The first single he bought with his own money was ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’!
    2. The uncle of his best friend at school used to play bass with the Starlight Vocal Band!
    3. He had a ticket to see the Sex Pistols play at the Screen on the Green in Islington - but he didn’t go!
    4. He has an iPod - but his kids have to download the music for him!
    5. JOHNSON’S POP MISCELLANY is his eighth book - but the first one to mention Gilbert O’ Sullivan!
     
    BRIAN BRITTEN used to play for Reading, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Southend United, Walsall, Tranmere Rovers and Hartlepool. He was once described as ‘the best defender never to have played in the top two divisions’. He claims to have kicked ‘at least six’ future England internationals.

    JIMMY JOHNSON is a professional writer. FOREIGN NANCY BOYS is his twelfth book. He lives in - and supports -