Selected Stories by Nicholas Hagger -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Books published by Nicholas Hagger Contents Preface to Selected Stories Part One: Follies and Vices

from A Spade Fresh with Mud (1995)

1 Neck out to Sea 2 Angels in a Golden Light 3 People Like Masks 4 The Need to Smash 5 Rainbow Trout 6 Fils Under the Palms 7 A Kingdom and a Tear 8 A Cuckoo in Casa Pupos 9 Lumps Under Snow 10 Jewels of a Ruling Class 11 A Villa on Cap Ferrat 12 A Liar in Paris 13 A Screw-Manufacturer in Business 14 Yawns Under a Sepulchral Sky 15 Pipe-Clay Breeches and Geese 16 Skewered Pheasants Under a Scarlet Knife

from A Smell of Leaves and Summer (1995)

17 Capitalism and Mr Bluett 18 The Director is an Idiot 19 An Imperial Egoist and a Car Wallah

from Wheeling Bats and a Harvest Moon (1999)

20 Angry Old Man 21 A Tie in his Tea 22 The Bride and a Forgotten Joint

from The Warm Glow of the Monastery Courtyard (1999)

23 Feet on the Ground 24 Aladdin’s Cave and a Disgruntled Look 25 A Chunk of Rock with a Fossil in it 26 Bacon, Eggs, Sausage and Tomato 27 A Browning in Belsen 28 Ry-bald Comments and a Lost Cheque 29 An Important Star and a Fossil-Lady 30 Twenty-Five Years Like a Banquet 31 Past for the Best

from In the Brilliant Autumn Sunshine (2007)

32 A Russian Girl and a Credit Card 33 A Dead Pipistrelle and Blown-Up Skyscrapers 34 A Spectre at the Old Boys’ Feast 35 A Sombre Cherry Tree and Sunflowers 36 A Tyrant and a Lie 37 A Coffin and a Ladybird 38 A Shrill “Shut Up” and Shambles 39 Horror After the Rave 40 An Awesome Queen and Umbrella-ed Flunkeys 41 Notice and a Wheel 42 Exhausted 43 Fossilised Chivalry and Unknightly Yobbery

Part Two: Quest for the One

from A Spade Fresh with Mud (1995)

1 A Spade Fresh with Mud 2 A Crown of Thorns 3 A Gun-Runner in Danger 4 A Thousand Feet and a Cage 5 A Crag and Bursting Stars 6 Mosquitoes in a Bamboo-Grove 7 A Scarlet-Robed Bedouin and a Colossus 8 The Portmellon Water Splash 9 Freedom Over the Canal 10 Chinese Flies on a Mountain 11 Saké and the Meaning of Life

from A Smell of Leaves and Summer (1995)

12 A Smell of Leaves and Summer 13 A Ladder and Quarrels at Church 14 The Clear, Shining Sunlight of Eternity 15 Frothy Weirs and a Rising Sun

from Wheeling Bats and a Harvest Moon (1999)

16 Wheeling Bats and a Harvest Moon 17 The Sweet, Fresh Mountain Air 18 Coughing and an Accepted Calvary

from The Warm Glow of the Monastery Courtyard (1999)

19 The Warm Glow of the Monastery Courtyard 20 A Gardener Goes into the Fire 21 A Lion and Clacking Sticks 22 A Headless Statue in Nettles 23 Love Like a Cheek-Warming Log-Burner 24 A Soul Like Ripe Grain 25 Morphine and Tears

from In the Brilliant Autumn Sunshine (2007)

26 In the Brilliant Autumn Sunshine, Among a Thousand Islands 27 Walking on From the Harbour 28 A Sallow Octogenarian and a Slow Ambulance 29 Bluebells Between Souls 30 New-Mown Grass 31 Fortitude Like a Navy Pullover 32 Fireworks and the One 33 A Shell House and Plunging Gorges 34 Daubenton’s Bats and the One 35 A Study Like a Bittern-Hide 36 Shadow and Sun 37 A Bat Like a Soul 38 Kingfishers, Crassula and the One 39 A Fountain of Light 40 Paralysed Bodies and the One 41 A Dance of Death and the Dance of Life 42 A Thousand Selves and the One 43 The Secret of the Desert

Epilogue

Two views from c.2600BC

The Riddle of the Great Pyramid The Meaning and Purpose of the Great Pyramid

Follies and Vices, and Quest Themes