Book review
Written by Neil Gaiman
Bloomsbury paperback
Release date Out now

A selection of Gaiman's short stories from the past quarter century...

The best short stories aren't necessarily the ones that leave you wanting more, although there are times when it's clear that a story is exceeding the space allocated to it and there's far more to be learned. Often the best ones tell you exactly what you need to know, and then resonate in your mind for hours or days afterwards.

Neil Gaiman writes good short stories. The 11 tales in this collection run the gamut from out-and-out funny (the opener and the glorious 'Chivalry') to the really creepy ('Troll Bridge' and 'Don't Ask Jack'). Only 'The Witch's Headstone' really outstays its welcome, although even this is well written and engrossing – you just feel a bit of an anti-climax at the end.

We meet the members of various clubs, whose interests coincide in something that turns out to be macabre, and there's a joy in the realisation of what's going on behind the scenes. There are wonderful combinations of the mundane and the extraordinary – 'Chivalry' comes to mind here again, with the most unusual guardian of the Holy Grail you're ever going to meet. 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties' evokes that terrible sense you get as a teenager that somehow everyone else is doing better with the opposite sex than you are, which on this occasion might be no bad thing. Paul Simpson

VERDICT: 8/10
There's a lightness of touch here that is occasionally missing in Gaiman's longer works, which makes this collection all the more readable.