Fireworks

Fireworks generate excitement, colour and noise out of all proportion to their size. So do these pieces by Angela Carter, a sequence of short tales of intense force and brilliance which stun, fascinate, entertain – and disquieten, because ‘here, the grotesque is the order of the day’. Here is a series of stories in the Gothic tradition, whose great themes are incest and cannibalism, whose characters and events are exaggerated beyond reality to become symbols, ideas and passions which underline our ignorance and shatter our complacency.