In the original dustsheet. Maroon cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

The quotidian and the surreal inhabit the same vivid and perplexing world in this collection of stories. Full of his trademark mixture of humour, pathos, disappointed families and dysfunctional lives, they include an ostracised small-town puppeteer, a commuter who fails to recognise his ex-wife, a bereaved academic working in the college kitchens after his part in a sex scandal and a family who wake up to find their caravan has been mysteriously transported overnight…

Review: I really liked these stories because they come at you from the left field (I’m a big fan of both the short story genre and have a great appreciation for the bizarre in life). HOWEVER, I have to be honest and say that after reading a few of them, there is a definite undercurrent of violence against women thread through several of the tales which, being female, I found somewhat disturbing. Therefore while on the one hand I applaud the author for not censoring the dark side of his imagination, and allowing us insight into the suppressed rage of a “middle England” male psyche, I cannot divorce this from the worrying reality that such violent thoughts are all too often carried out. Interesting, but perhaps not the best present for a Feminist!