Carefully selected from five collections and over thirty years of writing, this beautiful new publication celebrates the best of A. S. Byatt's short stories.Fascinated by fairy tales and fables, art and creation, these stories of betrayal and loyalty, quests and longings, loneliness and passion will delight readers.'A cabinet of curiosities. Glitteringly beautiful. Byatt is a vivid colourist' Sunday Times'A cerebral extravaganza, bristling with ideas' Spectator'These little stories by one of Britain's foremost grandes dames of the writing world are a delightful surprise, packing a much greater punch than many full-length novels. They are moving, thought-provoking, witty and shocking all at once' Sunday Telegraph'Antonia Byatt's first collection of stories displays all her talent as a novelist, but spiced with additional friskiness... a bright, sensual prose that seems to paint rather than describe' Penelope Lively, Evening Standard