From the author of the much-loved Old Filth trilogy, Jane Gardam’s short stories are as witty, scintillating, and emotionally acute as the greatest of her novels. This definitive collection, which brings together the best short works from throughout her remarkable career, showcases Gardam’s versatility and imagination as well as her richly developed sense of observation. Moving seamlessly from the macabre to the nostalgic and the wickedly comic, these stories are as eloquent as ever while also highlighting Gardam’s inimitable grasp of dialogue and subtly piercing prose. Featuring a wide cast of characters in all stages of life, Gardam expertly probes secret desires, hidden motives, and unresolved pasts. Some of these stories end with twists worthy of Roald Dahl at his most ironic, while others channel Alice Munro’s gentle melancholy. These reissued masterpieces are a welcome addition to Gardam’s already impressive oeuvre.

Jane Gardam
Jane Gardam has been twice awarded the Whitbread Prize and was also a Booker prize finalist. She is winner of the David Higham Prize, the Royal Society for Literature’s Winifred Holtby Prize, the Katherine Mansfield Prize, and the Silver Pen Award from PEN. Her novels include God on the Rocks, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Old Filth, finalist for the Orange Prize; The Man in the Wooden Hat, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Last Friends, finalist for the Folio Award. She lives in the south of England near the sea. In 1999 Jane Gardam was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in recognition of a distinguished literary career.

• Apr 7 2015
  Guest Post by Roger Moore: Notes from Vanderbilt in Spring - "While Gardam’s stories chronicle life in a particularly confusing moment in British history, her stories confront a range of universal themes and subjects."
  
• Dec 14 2014
  The Seattle Times: Best Books of 2014
  
• Sep 1 2014
  NewPages Book Reviews: "Gardam's preference for short stories shows in this extraordinary collection of great writing."
  
• Aug 10 2014
  New York Times Editor's Choice: "Unexpected appearances of figures from the past drive many of these sly, bighearted tales."
  
• Aug 4 2014
  The New York Times Sunday Book Review: "They should inspire a well-deserved double take."
  
• Jul 31 2014
  The Stories of Jane Gardam makes the top ten fiction works of 2014 on TopList