Monday lunch in fairyland and other stories

This is a sparkling collection of short stories, dealing with love, loss and the tiny happenings that make up our everyday experience.

Her most brilliant stories are about successful couples who own comfortable houses, enjoy interesting lives, raise attractive children - and commit adultery.

On the other hand, the author is equally concerned with the old, the lonely and the hard-up, perceiving the exiguous sources from which they derive their hope or consolation and the last straws which drive them to despair.

Like an experienced naturalist, she moves invisibly through social undergrowth, observing the quirks of human fauna, solitary, coupling, flocking, moulting, displaying or dying.

Angela Huth has the gift of infiltrating the lives and minds of her characters whatever their age and social background.