A book that consists of just the word 'and,' endlessly repeated. A man paralysed by option anxiety who's unable to make decisions of any kind. A group of 1960s artists who believe that destruction is the highest form of creativity. Collected together here for the first time, these stories were written over a period of 30 years, from the early 1980s to the present day. They include 'The Book of Ands' (reprinted in Best Short Stories and The Best of Best Short Stories) and 'Company' (reprinted in Best Short Stories and The Penguin Book of First World War Stories). Other stories have appeared in The Time Out Book of London Short Stories and London Magazine.'The Shed' won First Prize in the 2009 Chapter One International Short Story Competition. There are clever literary fictions here but there is also simpler fare: a ghost story, a timeslip story, a futuristic satire on sexual politics and a cycle of semi-autobiographical stories about growing up in Dagenham in the 1960s and early '70s. The book includes a preface by the author ('Why the Short Story Is Better Than the Novel') and a brief introduction to each story. Praise for 'The Book of Ands': '...a literary and philosophical teaser reminiscent of Nabokov' (Scottish Herald) '...pretty dang cool' (Commodore Awesome: blog 4 Apr 2011)
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