Extractions

kateelliott asked last summer - as she was about to embark on a book tour, I think - what sort of readings people liked to hear. I thought that was an interesting question - although, looking back at her post, I realise that I was partly spinning off at a tangent from what she asked, onto a topic which I had already been thinking about. It's one of the many questions on which desperance and I disagree constantly, volubly and at length. Which is why I'm back on the topic now: River of the World, desperance's new book is about to be published, and it's time to put an extract on the web site, as a taster. But how do I choose my extract?

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That's the theory; here's the practical application. This is the extract I chose from River of the World: I'd be grateful to anyone who has time to read it, and can tell me whether it works.