CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Malcolm LowryStrange Comfort Afforded by the Profession

(from Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place)

Samuel BeckettPing

(from Collected Shorter Prose 1945–80)

Elizabeth BowenMysterious Kor

(from The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen)

V. S. PritchettA Family Man

(from V. S. Pritchett: Collected Stories)

Dylan ThomasThe Burning Baby

(from Adventures in the Skin Trade)

Graham GreeneThe Invisible Japanese Gentlemen

(from May We Borrow Your Husband)

Angus WilsonMore Friend Than Lodger

(from A Bit Off the Map)

Jean RhysThe Lotus

(from Tigers Are Better Looking)

William GoldingMiss Pulkinhorn

(from Encounter, August 1960)

Kingsley AmisMy Enemy’s Enemy

(from Kingsley Amis: Collected Short Stories)

Ted HughesThe Rain Horse

(from Wodwo)

Alan SillitoeThe Fishing-boat Picture

(from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner)

Doris LessingTo Room Nineteen

(from A Man and Two Women)

Muriel SparkThe House of the Famous Poet

(from Bang Bang You’re Dead)

John FowlesThe Enigma

(from The Ebony Tower)

J. G. BallardMemories of the Space Age

(from Firebird 3)

William TrevorA Meeting in Middle Age

(from The Stories of William Trevor)

Edna O’BrienIn the Hours of Darkness

(from Mrs Reinhardt and Other Stories)

B. S. JohnsonA Few Selected Sentences

(from Aren’t You Rather Young to be Writing Your Memoirs?)

Malcolm BradburyComposition

(from Who Do You Think You Are?)

Fay WeldonWeekend

(from Watching Me Watching You)

David LodgeHotel des Boobs

(from Cosmopolitan, 1986)

Beryl BainbridgeClap Hands, Here Comes Charlie

(from Mum and Mrs Armitage)

Ian McEwanPsychopolis

(from In Between the Sheets)

Angela CarterFlesh and the Mirror

(from Fireworks)

Martin AmisLet me Count the Times

(from Granta 4)

Rose TremainMy Wife is a White Russian

(from Granta 7)

Salman RushdieThe Prophet’s Hair

(from London Review of Books, 16 August 1981)

Julian BarnesOne of a Kind

(from New Stories 7)

Emma TennantPhilomela

(from Bananas Anthology)

Clive SinclairBedbugs

(from Bedbugs)

Graham SwiftSeraglio

(from Learning to Swim)

Kazuo IshiguroA Family Supper

(from Firebird 2)

Adam Mars-JonesStructural Anthropology

(from Firebird 1)