Margaret Drabble has a superb ability to cover every human emotion in a clear and concise way. It's so easy to sympathise with the characters because their feelings are so well expressed, and such a wide range of human emotions are covered. That said, the short stories contained within this book, whilst not necessarily being sad, are mildly depressing and I felt down and thoughful after reading many of them. My favourite ones were the holiday stories, the descriptions of the sparkling Mediterranean and the baking sun were very evocative, yet again a little depressing. The stories generally don't have endings, they just end in a stylish and thoughtful way, so there is no happy or unhappy ending to speak of. I suppose I could think up my own happy endings to cheer myself up.