The Little Black Book of StoriesA. S. Byatt's short stories never fail to delight- but this new collection brings shivers as well as magical thrills. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle aged women walk into a forest, as they did when they were girls, confronting their childhood fears and memories and the strange thing they saw- or thought they saw- so long ago. A distinguished male obstetrician and a young woman artist meet in a hospital: but both of them have very different ideas about body parts, birth and death. An innocent member of an evening class turns out to have her own decided views on how to use 'raw material'- The five stories in this marvellous collection are by turns funny, spooky, sparkling, sad, and utterly unforgettable. THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK holds its secrets, and they will linger in your mind forever. |
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anaesthetist arms artist asked baby began blood blue body Body Art breath carved child Cicely Fox clothes clotted cream colour creatures crèche Daisy Whimple Damian Becket dark dead Deanna Bright Dido Dipsy door Dr Becket Dr Nanjuwany dust eyes face father felt fingers flesh forest glass grey hair hands head Hekla hospital human ice-box Iceland imagined Jack Smollett James Jane Austen Katla kind knew labradorite lapsed Catholic lichens light little girls living loofah looked mad Mado Martha Sharpin Miss Fox mother never night painted pale Penny and Primrose plastic pumice remembered Reykjavík round Secrett semolina silk skin sleep smell smiling stained starch stared stone stony stood talk Tamsin Teletubbies Terry Frosts things Thorsteinn thought told took turned voice walked ward whisky woman women wondered wood words writing