Drabble's collection of short stories compiled by Jose Francisco Fernandez spans 40 or so odd years. She engages the reader with tales of passion, fidelity, infidelity and a broad-ranging examination of various emotions. She brings to mind her British compatriot Diana Athill, but at the same time has a distinctive style of her own. Drabble has a flair for loading in tidbits of nature and distinctive scenery into her words which makes for a quick and delightful read.

Drabble's last two books were non-fiction ("A Writer's Britain" and "The Pattern in the Carpet"). It is great to see a publisher pull together all of the short stories from her long writing career for this small volume. It is perhaps a capstone to her career, as she has said that it is unlikely she will write much at all again. Drabble is particularly good at writing about women's lives, with sharp insight, sympathy and wit. These stories are great examples of those skills.

To the many fans and followers of Margaret Drabble this collection of short stories is pure pleasure. These 14 tales venture into the past four decades of her writing career to explore the complex psyche of independent women as they reveal their love affairs, their shattered marriages, their class origins and their jobs. Her dry British humour is part of the joy of reading this collection. The stories showcase Drabble’s keen literary talent and present her complete short fiction for the first time in one volume. This may be the last new fiction we will read from the 72 year old Dame Margaret Drabble as she retired from writing in 2009 to prevent what she says “repeating myself without knowing it which is what old people do endlessly.” These stories are a fitting end to a brilliant career.