Alexander Starritt

"The twentieth century had conclusively settled the question of how a society should be organised: liberal democracy, free markets and personal self- realisation. Even the Russians and Chinese had hauled down the red flag and realised they'd rather have a nice time than a world revolution. Even the Irish had settled their eight-hundred-year vendetta, simply because no one wanted it any more."

"For James, there was no sense that expanding Tesco’s sales onto the web was what the human race urgently needed. It didn’t have to be. This was a ladder. And yet: he’d come first in the most prestigious course at the most famous university in the world, and he was sitting here in his boxers copying and pasting the item code for ironing boards. It didn’t feel as if he were ascending to greatness."

"It was insane that you had to pretend to be interested in your job and use these lame phrases like “pinging things over” “by close of play”."

"James had assumed this would be a task of meticulous detection, of inefficiencies brilliantly uncovered, but there was blatant wastage everywhere. Half the employees barely lifted a finger. They spent days listlessly scheduling meetings or organising the holiday calendar. A company grown fat on oil. For James it was like finding ripe fields of wheat yearning for the scythe. Roland felt like a snitch."

"James was twenty- seven and never had a boss again. Until that moment, he and Roland had lived as employees, as if in the warm, dark, cosy- fetid hold of a ship. What happened up at the helm was not their concern."

"James said that in years to come, when the company had swelled to thousands, people would brag about having been on this boat. It would be like saying you were with Mao on the Long March."

"It was as if they were together in their campaign tent, studying the map and deciding where to deploy their regiments."

"This was what it must be like when the winners of some shitty trophy in Slovenia qualified for the Champions League and came up against Real Madrid. It was the sheer embarrassment of having taken yourself seriously."