Katherine Mansfield is famous for her short stories, but I must admit that I found this collection hard work. It is indeed superbly written, but her world of servants and class distinctions and the importance of wearing the right hat when you go out is so removed from the present day that it is sometimes difficult to relate to. Some stories I just didn't get because the cultural difference was too remote and because she writes so subtly. Others I read and thought, 'what is that all about'. The one about boys turning into sparrows, for instance. What that all inside the narrator's mind or what?