Thanks are due to the copyright holders of the following stories for permission to reprint them in this volume:
Kingsley Amis: for ‘My Enemy’s Enemy’ from Collected Short Stories (Hutchinson & Co. Ltd), (reprinted by permission of Century Hutchinson Ltd). Martin Amis: for ‘Let Me Count The Times’ from Granta 4, © Martin Amis, 1981 (reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters & Co. Ltd). Beryl Bainbridge: for ‘Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie’ from Mum and Mr Armitage, © Beryl Bainbridge, 1985 (reprinted by permission of Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd and Anthony Sheil Associates Ltd). J. G. Ballard: for ‘Memories of the Space Age’ from Firebird 3, © 1982 J. G. Ballard (reprinted by permission of the author c/o Margaret Hanbury, 27 Walcot Square, London SE11). Julian Barnes: for ‘One of a Kind’ from New Stories 7, 1982, © Julian Barnes, 1982 (reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters & Co. Ltd). Samuel Beckett: for ‘Ping’ from Collected Shorter Prose 1945–80 (John Calder, 1984), (reprinted by permission of the author and John Calder (Publishers) Ltd and of The Grove Press Inc.). © Samuel Beckett, 1974; all rights reserved. Elizabeth Bowen: for ‘Mysterious Kor’ from The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen, © 1946 and renewed 1974 (reprinted by permission of Jonathan Cape Ltd., Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and the Estate of Elizabeth Bowen). Malcolm Bradbury: for ‘Composition’ from Encounter and Who Do You Think You Are?: Stories and Parodies (Seeker & Warburg Ltd, 1976). Angela Carter: for ‘Flesh and the Mirror’ from Fireworks, © 1974 Angela Carter (reprinted by permission of the author and Deborah Rogers Ltd). John Fowles: for ‘The Enigma’ from The Ebony Tower, © 1974 J. R. Fowles Ltd. William Golding: for ‘Miss Pulkinhorn’ from uncollected material (reprinted by permission of William Golding and Faber & Faber Ltd). Graham Greene: for ‘The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen’ from Collected Stories (reprinted by permission of Laurence Pollinger Ltd). Ted Hughes: for ‘The Rain Horse’ from Wodwo (reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd). Kazuo Ishiguro: for ‘A Family Supper’ from Firebird 2, © 1982 Kazuo Ishiguro (reprinted by permission of Deborah Rogers Ltd). B. S. Johnson: for ‘A Few Selected Sentences’ from Aren’t You Rather Young to be Writing Your Memoirs? (first published by Hutchinson & Co. Ltd, 1973), © the Estate of B. S. Johnson. Doris Lessing: for ‘To Room Nineteen’ from A Man and Two Women, © 1963 Doris Lessing (reprinted by permission of Jonathan Clowes Ltd on behalf of Doris Lessing). David Lodge: for ‘Hotel Des Boobs’ from Cosmopolitan 1986, © David Lodge, 1986 (reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd). Malcolm Lowry: for ‘Strange Comfort Afforded by the Profession’ from Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place © Margerie Bonner Lowry (reprinted by permission of the Executors of the Malcolm Lowry Estate, Jonathan Cape Ltd and Literistic Ltd). Adam Mars-Jones: for ‘Structural Anthropology’ from Quarto magazine (reprinted by permission of A. D. Peters & Co. Ltd). Ian McEwan: for ‘Psychopolis’ from In Between the Sheets, © 1978 Ian McEwan (reprinted by permission of Deborah Rogers Ltd). Edna O’Brien: for ‘Mrs Reinhardt’ from Mrs Reinhardt and Other Stories (reprinted by permission of Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd). V. S. Pritchett: for ‘A Family Man’ from On the Edge of the Cliff (reprinted by permission of the author and Chatto & Windus Ltd). Jean Rhys: for ‘The Lotus’ from Tigers Are Better Looking (Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978: first published in Art and Literature, no. 11, 1967), © Jean Rhys, 1967. Salman Rushdie: for ‘The Prophet’s Hair’ (first published in the London Review of Books, Vol 3, No. 7 1981), © 1981 London Review of Books (reprinted by permission of Deborah Rogers Ltd). Alan Sillitoe: for ‘The Fishing-boat Picture’ from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, © 1959 Alan Sillitoe (reprinted by permission of Tessa Sayle Agency and Alfred A. Knopf Inc.). Clive Sinclair: for ‘Bedbugs’ from the collection Bedbugs, © 1982 Clive Sinclair (reprinted by permission of Deborah Rogers Ltd). Graham Swift: for ‘Seraglio’ from the London Magazine, 1977 © Graham Swift, 1977 (reprinted by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd). Muriel Spark: for ‘The House of the Famous Poet’ first published in the New Yorker, 2 April 1966, © 1966 Copyright Administration Ltd (reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated). Emma Tennant: for ‘Philomela’ from Bananas, © Emma Tennant, 1975 (reprinted by permission of the author). Dylan Thomas: for ‘The Burning Baby’ from Adventures in the Skin Trade (reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd). Rose Tremain: for ‘My Wife is a White Russian’ from The Colonel’s Daughter (Hamish Hamilton Ltd and Arena; first published by Granta), © Rose Tremain, 1983 (reprinted by permission of Richard Scott Simon Ltd). William Trevor: for ‘A Meeting in Middle Age’ from The Day We Got Drunk on Cake (The Bodley Head Ltd, 1967; first published in Transatlantic Review, 1966), © 1967 William Trevor. Fay Weldon: for ‘Weekend’ from Cosmopolitan, 1978, © Fay Weldon. Angus Wilson: for ‘More Friend than Lodger’ from A Bit Off the Map, © Angus Wilson, 1957 (reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd).