The ISIHAC
Literary First Lines Page

Last Updated
15 Jan 2008

On the BBC Radio 4 show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, one of the rounds includes suggestions for replacement endings to the first lines of certain books novels and autobiographies. Here are some of the teams' suggestions, along with some of my suggestions. If you have any ideas you would like included, please e-mail me here, and I will add the best ones (with full credit to you of course)
Just move your mouse over the end of each opening section to reveal all!

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[ REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier:
Last night I dreamt I went to ...
REAL ANSWER
Not broadcast]
Salford
28 Jun 2004
THE MIRROR CRACK'D by Agatha Christie:
Miss Jane Marple was sitting by her ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
[ POLO by Jilly Cooper:
Queen Augusta's Boarding School for Girls has a splendid academic reputation, but on a sweltering afternoon in June, one of its pupils was ...
REAL ANSWER
Not broadcast]
Salford
28 Jun 2004
[ THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBE by C.S. Lewis:
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edward and ...
REAL ANSWER
Not broadcast]
Salford
28 Jun 2004
NOTRE DAME DE PARIS by Victor Hugo:
Just 348 years 6 months and 19 days ago today, Parisiennes woke to the sound of ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare:
If music be the food of love, ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
LIVING HISTORY by Hillary Rodham Clinton:
I wasn't born a first lady or a senator. I wasn't born a democrat. I was born ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkein:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
[ VANITY FAIR by William Thackeray:
While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gates of Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies on Chiswick Mall, a large ...
REAL ANSWER
Not broadcast]
Salford
28 Jun 2004
[ ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabrielle Garcia Marquez:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to ...
REAL ANSWER
Not broadcast]
Salford
28 Jun 2004
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London:
Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce:
Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a moo cow coming down along the road, and this moo cow that was coming down along the road ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
POSSESSION by A.S. Byatt:
The book was thick, and black, and covered with ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
TROWEL AND ERROR by Alan Titchmarsh:
My small fingers traced the outline of the round, smooth ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
THE GO-BETWEEN by L.P. Hartley:
The past is a foreign country ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
GOLDFINGER by Ian Fleming:
James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat back in the final departure lounge of Miami airport ...
REAL ANSWER
Salford
28 Jun 2004
THE MIRROR CRACK'D by Agatha Christie:
Miss Jane Marple was sitting by her ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
NOTRE DAME DE PARIS by Victor Hugo:
Just 348 years 6 months and 19 days ago today, Parisiennes woke to the sound of ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare:
If music be the food of love, ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
LIVING HISTORY by Hillary Rodham Clinton:
I wasn't born a first lady or a senator. I wasn't born a democrat. I was born ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkein:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London:
Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce:
Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a moo cow coming down along the road, and this moo cow that was coming down along the road ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
TROWEL AND ERROR by Alan Titchmarsh:
My small fingers traced the outline of the round, smooth ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
THE GO-BETWEEN by L.P. Hartley:
The past is a foreign country ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
GOLDFINGER by Ian Fleming:
James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat back in the final departure lounge of Miami airport ...
REAL ANSWER
ISIHAC 9, Side 2
(d?) after venue signifies a query regarding the Date of broadcast,
(??) signifies a query regarding Venue of broadcast


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