This substantial collection brings together short stories written over a span of forty years, including those first published in the highly-rated Song for Simone (1986) and A Way to Catch the Dust (1999) and more than a dozen new stories. The previously published pieces have been extensively revised. They range from stories set in Grenada at different periods from the 1970s onwards, to several set in the UK.These are stories that have a narrative drive, a meticulousness of construction, an exactness of image and a rigorous economy in the prose. They are inventive in their explorations of a variety of narrative voices from children to adults, male and female, Caribbean and British that establish a persona and capture the reader from the first sentence.

Jacob Ross is a novelist, short story writer, editor and creative writing tutor. His latest book, Black Rain Falling, was published by Sphere in March 2020. His previous crime novel, The Bone Readers, won the inaugural Jhalak Prize in 2017. His literary novel Pynter Bender was shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Regional Prize and chosen as one of the British Authors Club's top three Best First Novels. Jacob is also the author of two short story collections and editor of Closure, Contemporary Black British short stories. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.