A luminous selection of short stories from the Booker prize-winning A. S. Byatt, celebrating over thirty years of writing

With an introduction by David Mitchell

Byatt takes her readers to a place that is rich in ideas, vivid in colour and wholly unforgettable. Mirrors shatter at the hairdressers when a middle-aged client explodes in rage. Snow dusts the warm body of a princess honing it into something sharp and frosted. Summer sunshine flickers on the face of a smiling child who may or may not be real.

Peopled by artists, poets and fabulous creatures, these stories travel from the ancient mythic world to an English sweet factory, a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace. Blazing with creativity, they show what lies beneath the veneer of the ordinary, and reveal the fantastical possibilities beyond.

'A cabinet of curiosities... Glitteringly beautiful' Sunday Times

'A cerebral extravaganza, bristling with ideas' Spectator

'Moving, witty and shocking' Sunday Telegraph