Longlisted for the Edge Hill and Frank O'Connor Short Story awards 2015. A mother struggles to bond with her newborn baby; a student obsesses about flies spreading their killer germs; a young boy dreads the bullies who torment him. People can look ‘normal’, but appearances often mask a darker inner reality. Inspired by the author’s experiences as a nurse over the last thirty years, and written with compassion and a wild imagination, Little Crackers opens a world of strange characters – the paranoid, the isolated, the exploited and the wicked – and raises questions about how we care for the most vulnerable members of our society. Obsession, dementia, post-natal depression, psychosis and even murder all feature in this quirky, surprising Tales of the Unexpected for the 21st century.