The Beach Butler / The Professional (Storycuts)

Oct 2, 2024 2:17 PM

Author:Ruth Rendell

In 'The Beach Butler' Alison's holiday is proving underwhelming. She has had to take her holiday on her own, and finds the seaside a bore - except for the attentions of the remarkably handsome 'beach butler'. A chance discovery, however, radically alters the atmosphere.

In 'The Professional' a young man has a menial job in the department store which is not particularly fulfilling, although it pays a wage and provides a chance to talk to the pretty shop-girls. But when a woman is murdered in the store, far more profound truths surface than would otherwise have been suspected.

Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Piranha To Scurfy.

Reviews

Fairy tales reimagined for feminist times

—— Grazia

She was, among other things, a quirky, original, and baroque stylist, a trait especially marked in The Bloody Chamber - her vocabulary a mix of finely tuned phrase, luscious adjective, witty aphorism, and hearty, up-theirs vulgarity

—— Margaret Atwood , Observer

Magnificent set pieces of fastidious sensuality

—— Ian McEwan

She can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales

—— The Times

The Bloody Chamber is such an important book to me. Angela Carter, for me, is still the one who said: ‘You see these fairy stories, these things that are sitting at the back of the nursery shelves? Actually, each one of them is a loaded gun. Each of them is a bomb. Watch: if you turn it right it will blow up.’ And we all went: ‘Oh my gosh, she’s right—you can blow things up with these!’

—— Neil Gaiman , Daily Telegraph

A wonderfully written book, ironical, cerebral, elegant . . . distinguished by bold, inflected language and ornate, indeed often bloody, imagery

—— Joyce Carol Oates , New York Times Book Review

The Bloody Chamber's interweaving of retold fairy tales demonstrates Angela Carter's narrative gift at its most mocking and seductive

—— Observer

Extraordinary and beautiful

—— Peter Redgrove

These stories are shored up with sentences and paragraphs that demand immediate re-reading for their cleverness and warmth…This party is well worth attending

—— Independent

This collection shows a writer quietly growing in style, perception and grace. She conveys to the reader that rare ability to see completely into someone else’s head

—— Spectator

Accomplished ... confident

—— Sunday Times

The ghost of Katherine Mansfield hovers lightly over these deceptively delicate snapshots which zero in on the much maligned territory of the domestic and make it new and vital again

—— Metro

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