Funny, infectious, exuberant, sharp, sad and beautifully observed

A witty, observant and passionate collection of stories

The stories loiter disturbingly in the memory, a terrific compendium of messy lives, betrayals, heartbreaks and tragedies

Themes of infidelity and insecure lives of folk in the big city dominate Caroline Oulton's first collection of short stories ... A sad, funny, closely observed set of tales about the seemingly different lives of people living in a London neighbourhood.

The stories themselves are interwoven skilfully and each provides a satisfying probe into the characters' illicit lives, which engage you wholly, in the same guilty way as a gossip magazine. Oulton's prose is effective, nakedly frank and at intervals, truly delightful.

This new series of Central European Classics is important well beyond simply providing 'good reads'.

Enright writes beautifully about the distance of desire

Dazzling ...These narrative snapshots are skilfully framed and in-focus, the language forthright and fresh

This short story collection gives those new to her oeuvre a chance to delve into gems from her past...precociously vibrant

All the elements of Welsh's best work remain in tact here: the brilliant imagination, the phonetically-transcribed Scots dialect, the humour, the gritty realism

What's striking about these early stories is that the thicker Welsh was steeped in the primordial goo of his Edinburgh Scots phonetics, the better the storytelling got

As you would expect, the stories in this collection involve a certain amount of cultural tourism to the lower depths, undertaken with black humour... Welsh's relish for degradation covers up a strong sentimental streak

Welsh's transcription of Scots dialect is brilliant... Welsh also has a fabulous sense of the absurd... The overall vibe of these stories is dark and grim. And fierily, fiercely funny

A sparkling and adventurous writer