'Elusive, enigmatic and poetic' -Margaret Drabble about the story 'La Scala Inflammata"Full of mysterious and unnerving images' -Deborah Moggach about the sameIn these stories, antique coats retain the personality and power of previous owners; women fantasise about murdering their ex-husbands over tea and cake; mental breakdown sparks a quest mission that incorporates glimpses of both Heaven and Hell. Animistic, lyrical, and poignant; these narratives reverberate as much with the unseen and unsaid as with their opposites.Including the award-winning 'La Scala Inflammata', this collection brings together published and unpublished stories: each a delicate tribute to the minutiae of life and love, and each a profound meditation on the true, often unsettling, desires people hide beneath the veneer of social convention.