Two of the stories in this collection were previously published: ‘Sydney Is a City of Jaywalkers’ in Genre magazine (US), and ‘The Way All Trends Do’ in Ambit (UK). My thanks to the editors of both.
‘Jesus’ Elbows and Other Christian Urban Myths’ contains one urban myth told to me in an email as absolute truth by its sender, whom I’ll let remain anonymous (though believers that true are notoriously hard to embarrass). Another is plucked and adapted from the swirling worldwide urban myth ether. The others are invented. I decline to say which.
The epigraph is from the song ‘Zebra’, from the album 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields; lyrics written by Stephin Merrit. Copyright © 1999 Stephin Merrit, published by Gay and Loud (ASCAP). Reprinted with permission.
Thanks to: Michelle Kass; Resham Naqvi; Philip Gwyn Jones, Jon Butler, Karen Duffy, Sarah Savitt, and all the other fine folk at Flamingo; T. C. Boyle; Patrick Neate; Nicola Barker (for the Sillitoe!); Jonathan Ruffle for a timely printer lifebuoy; John Mullins, Andrew Thiele, and Phil Rodak. Special thanks to Patrick Gale for his unfailing generosity, and to Patrick again and Aidan Hicks for their hospitality.
And my love to Marc Nowell.