Salley Vickers is one of my favourite novelists so I was delighted to find this, her first collection of short stories. She proves herself to be a master of the form, which seems particularly well suited to her deceptively subtle style. The lightness of touch disguises some sudden dives into depths of emotion, so that the reader is frequently caught off guard by the twist in the tale, as in the clever title story of the collection, or The Buried Life, which is a painfully accurate account of the pitfalls of making new relationships when there are children. But there are happy stories here too, such as the delightful Shakespearian fairy tail, The Indian Child, or the witty Green Bus to St Ives, about an unusual late love affair. Exquisite stuff!
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