Synopses & Reviews
These ten stories – poignant, perceptive, sometimes sad, and frequently funny – display a multiplicity of London life glimpsed from buses, trains and the occasional taxi. The Thames is a diamond-dusted ribbon seen from an airplane coming into Heathrow; also from behind buggyloads of babies, and from suburban backyards with their barbecues, and dawn revelations.
Meanwhile, Dorrie, heroine of the title story, and full-time mother of three, struggles to preserve some shred of her self-respect and inner life, while bolstering family values both at home in London, and in the final story of the collection, on holiday in Cornwall.
About the Author
Helen Simpson’s two previous collections of stories, Four Bare Legs in a Bed and Dear George, have established her as one of the most highly acclaimed writers of her generation. One of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, she was also Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.