A collection of eleven interlinked short stories, all veering towards the slightly uncanny where normal rules don’t quite apply…

Each of these stories went in a slightly left-field direction, a few in a way that I enjoyed, but others less so. As with any short story collection, I liked some stories more than others, but overall most of them proved a little too…peculiar for my taste. There’s no question that Atkinson is a skilled writer, but ultimately I prefer her stories and writing developed to novel length.

I did enjoy that the stories within the collection were interlinked, with characters popping up across different stories. It’s always fun to spot clever crossovers and the links became more apparent as the collection progressed. Consequently, I found the collection more satisfying as I made my way through it, though it never quite blew me away.