Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Confessions of a Barista on Platform 1
Light, pacy and very funny, Joanna Murray's coffee-shop chronicle is a great read
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A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
IN WHAT’S a journey of self-discovery, via owning and running a coffee shop on St Leonards station in East Sussex, Joanna Murray interacts with a whole variety of great and evocatively named characters, from Stig the station manager to The Pirate, the Ice Queen, Dot Cotton and Station Man.
And there’s Harriet Harpie, whose rudeness finally gets her banned, leading to the memorable outburst: “That bitch wouldn’t serve me because I wouldn’t say please.”
There are amusing recurrent themes, such as people asking for the toilet but being told that there isn’t one on the station or in the coffee shop — not that this stops them repeatedly asking the same question.
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