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This brilliant sequence of short stories, first published in 1995, sees James Hamilton-Patterson serving up fables and fictions on creativity, tradition and loss, all of them linked by the love of music and underpinned by a musical theme. An escaped lunatic who thinks he is Schumann interrupts a quiet family picnic; a Croat refugee gifted at the guitar enters and unsettles a woman's life; and a Chinese master-teacher struggles with a pupil who would dare to modify a musical canon. 'Written in a wide range of voices ... (these tales) reveal an imagination as wide-ranging as it is dazzling. Astonishingly versatile ... extremely funny.' Christina Patterson, Independent 'Beautiful, eerie, witty, astute, dazzling.' Observer 'As perfect a collection of short stories as you're ever likely to come across.' Paul Sussman, Independent on Sunday
About the author
James Hamilton-Paterson is the author of the bestselling Empire of the Clouds, which was hailed as a classic account of the golden age of British aviation. He won a Whitbread Prize for his first novel, Gerontius, and among his many other celebrated books are Seven-Tenths, one of the finest books written in recent times about the oceans, the satirical trilogy that began with Cooking with Fernet Branca, and the autobiographical Playing With Water. Born and educated in England, he has lived in the Philippines and Italy and now makes his home in Austria.
