A different sound

During the 1940s and 1950s, female writers were producing a remarkable body of short stories – many of which have only recently begun to be appreciated. Selected and introduced by writer and critic Lucy Scholes, the stories in this collection provide tantalising snapshots of a changing society. They capture the long shadow of the Second World War and the subtle reconfigurations of domestic arrangements, ranging from a remote peninsula in Cornwall to the living rooms of the British Raj in India. This collection places stories from acclaimed writers such as Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Bowen alongside lesser-known, but equally brilliant, works. Suffused with tension and longing, combining supernatural dread with internal disharmony, their writing is crystalline and elegant and their storytelling endlessly compelling.