Fay Weldon
Short Story Collections

Fay Weldon is one of our sharpest and most accomplished chroniclers of human folly, and these brilliant stories bring her bracing wit to bear on men, love, therapy, marriage, parenting, and the myriad self-deceptions and half-truths that oil the wheels of "civilized behavior."

Here we meet nuclear scientist Defoe Desmond, a post-Cold War irrelevancy, who is ineptly drawn to a youthful, wily, husband-stealing New Age journalist; three sisters named Edwina, Thomasina, and Davida, who are appalled when their increasingly wild mother finally gives their father a male heir - two years after his death; and Paul, who keeps so still waiting to hear evidence of her husband's adultery that she does not notice she's giving birth. Weldon's world is peopled with therapists who blithely destroy marriages and family ties, husbands and lovers whose greatest cruelty is their detachment, and clever women navigating the perils and pitfalls of domesticity.

In lucid, finely hones style Fay Weldon serves up our greatest denials and most imprudent compromises. Her wicked humor and seasoned wisdom are as evident here as always - and tempered by great compassion for the foibles of the human heart.

Bio from the book jacket:

Fay Weldon was born in England, raised in New Zealand, and received her M.A. in economics and psychology from St. Andrew's University in Scotland. She is the author of twenty-one novels, including Worst Fears, Splitting, The Live and Loves of a She-Devil, The Hearts and Lives of Men, Praxis, Puffball, Darcy's Utopia, and Down Among the Women, as well as several collections of short stories and books of nonfiction. She lives in London.

Stories included in this edition:

• The story "Tale of Timothy Bagshott" was a BBC television play:
  Transmission date: 16/11/75
  Producer: HATHERLEY, FRANK
  Director: BRUCE, JOHN
  Writer: WELDON, FAY