Book description
In Wendy Perriam's sixth short-story collection, catalysts for
life-change come in surprising forms. A small, white curly dog pursues
a man from pub to office, turning his whole existence upside-down. A
collection of porcelain figurines drives an elderly widower to escape
his home and find solace with Marilyn Monroe. A bunch of orange tulips
propels a staidly married librarian into the arms of an exuberant
poet. A pair of returned Eurostar tickets whisks long-separated lovers
towards heady new romance. Many of Perriam's characters harbour guilty
secrets or long-suppressed desires. Spouses cheat on spouses; restive
mothers kick against their ties; loveless singletons yearn for poetry
and passion in their lives. Not all her ugly ducklings succeed in
turning into swans, but most do at least take wing - and sometimes a
touch of magic intervenes. In this inventive new collection, the
mundane goes hand in hand with the miraculous Â- and even the Queen
eats margarine.
"Wendy Perriam's fifteen novels have been acclaimed for their
psychological insight and their power to disturb, divert and intrigue.
Expelled from her convent boarding school for heresy, she read History
at Oxford and also trod the boards. After a variety of offbeat jobs,
ranging from artist's model to carnation disbudder to researcher on
medieval cookery, she now divides her time between writing and teaching.
Her first short-story collection, Dreams, Demons and Desire, was praised
as 'a long-awaited treat - exciting and enchanting'; her second, Virgin
in the Gym, as 'a feast of fantasy that will amuse and provoke in equal
measure'; her fourth, The Biggest Female in the World, as 'literary,
funny, moving. In a word, wonderful'. "
