follow. Thus, in Charles Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities, the author follows his famous first line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” with a lengthy description of the state of society and affairs in England and France that provides the backdrop for the ensuing action. Other authors, however, prefer to launch right into the action. Novelist Iain Banks begins his book The Crow Road like this: It was the day my Grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle