A masterful contemporary exponent of the genre. Simpson now deserves to be compared with Flannery O'Connor and Alice Munro

Simpson's use of language is remarkable: she handles prose with the risky precision of a trapeze artist, swooping and tumbling through empty air, seeming certain at moments to succumb to whimsy or sentimentality but at the last moment recovering her grasp on the deftly constructed framework of her narratives. It's a virtuoso performance; its effect on the reader both consoling and exhilarating

She is a virtuoso... Briskly melancholic, dazzlingly pertinent short stories about women's lives and how they survive

Subtle, emotional, humorous, painful and acute... It's a small masterpiece

The brilliance of the conceits and the complex economy that shapes the best of these tales, match and surpass any of Helen Simpson's earlier writing

Together with the biting humour, there is aching sadness and real tenderness, making this collection up there with the best of this genre

Constitutional is Helen Simpson fourth collection of short stories and shows some fine developments in one of the Short Story forms more accomplished practitioners

A writer of dizzying ambition and variety, each of his stories is a fresh adventure into the possibilities of fiction

Rose Tremain is a prolific and much lauded writer but here she is at her best

Painful moments of self-revelation are expertly drawn

Striking collection of stories

As you would expect, the stories in this collection involve a certain amount of cultural tourism to the lower depths, undertaken with black humour... Welsh's relish for degradation covers up a strong sentimental streak

Welsh's transcription of Scots dialect is brilliant... Welsh also has a fabulous sense of the absurd... The overall vibe of these stories is dark and grim. And fierily, fiercely funny