Next time you speak to you-know-who
I've got a message for him.
Tell him that I have lost a stone
Since the last time I saw him.
Tell him that I've got three new books
Coming out soon, but play it
Cool, make it sound spontaneous.
Don't say I said to say it.

        from 'Don't Say I Said'

Sophie Hannah's sharp pen dissects modern life and relationships with insouciant honesty and ruthless wit, and her love poems evoke timeless feelings with a shrewd simplicity that deepens her range. An edge of desolation, tenderness - an occasional flash of cruelty - and an ebullient delight in language make this a book of bittersweet pleasures.

Pessimism for Beginners includes an extract from the opening chapter of Sophie Hannah's second psychological thriller, Hurting Distance, published by Hodder & Stoughton, described by The Times as 'a superbly creepy, twisty thriller about obsessive love, psychological torture and the darkest chambers of the human heart'. In poetry and prose, Sophie Hannah is compellingly readable.

Contents

I

On Her Tiredness            11

Mary Questions the Health Visitor            12

‘No Ball Games etc’            13

Round Robin            14

Discipline            15

The Plan            17

Letterland            18

Fifteen per cent of goodbye…            19

Deferred Gratification            20

Silly Mummy            21

One Little Wish            22

Astronomical            23

Pessimism for Beginners            24



II

Something and Nothing            27

Telling Strangers            28

How I Feel Now    29

Living Without You      30

From a Stranger            31

Exorcise            32

Friday 13th February 2004            34

The Onus            35

Manifest            36

Imaginary Friend  37

My Ideal Man            38

Send    39



III

The Cutting Dead    43

White Feathers            44

Peace Offering            45

In the Chill            46

After the Axe            47

The Way It Has to Be            48

Nothing to Hide     49

Let’s Put the Past in Front of Us        50

The Barring Arm     51

Homewrecker            52

Don’t Say I Said     53

Rubbish at Adultery            54

Anyone Can Draw a Line            55

Progress            56

Limited 57



from Chapter 1 of Hurting Distance            59