He writes with subtlety and skill... beautifully manipulating the language which veers and soars from the vernacular to the high-flown and summoning characters that are at once believable and sympathetic

Extremely readable and enjoyable

Brilliantly unsettling

In clean, uncomplicated prose inlaid with images of striking lyricism, Woodward explores the bizarre possibilities of ordinary people's lives

The down-to-earth dialogue and the deadpan delivery remain doggedly realistic, and some stories retain not only the ring of truth but also its open-ended structure

Uncanny, absurd and at times macabre, these stories magically combine a poet's eye for imagery with a novelist's complexity of theme

The author's humour often glimmers quietly and there is surreal black comedy

pungent and memorable

An enjoyable collection.

Gerard Woodward falls squarely between the comic lunacy of American short-form virtuoso George Saunders and the everyday rhapsodies of Raymond Carver ... Woodward is actually at his best when he's knee-deep in the ordinary

At last, Galloway's stories are back in print in one collection...savagely accurate, engaging and funny, she is one of our great contemporary writers

A testament to the sharp eye and shrewd brain of Janice Galloway, one of Scotland's finest writers

A writer of passion and virtuosity