Opening Lines

The first line of a book is pretty important. Here are a few of our favourites:

"Where's Papa going with that ax?"

Charlotte's Web, EB White

 

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

 

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

 

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis

 

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

The Go-Between, LP Hartley

 

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.

Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve

The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.

Uglies, Scott Westerfeld.

 

Your mission is to make up an entirely new opening line for an imaginary book.

Best answers get books.