all the stories in here are pretty good, although i wonder if my affection for 20th century realismish has wholeheartedly shifted from short stories to novels, and i want my short stories to have a bit more genre to them. i also wonder if the very beautiful hardback - the only option out when i had my book token, and, i'll reiterate, a lovely object - is at odds with the relative slightness of just 11 fairly random stories.
my favourites, or at least the two which most stuck with me, both had elements of supernatural horror. that was, 'the birds' (loved the movie recently, this is also effective and chilling, and i was interested in how much it was about the war) and the canal one, i believe 'three miles up' - yes, just checked, by elizabeth jane howard - which i found genuinely deeply chilling. am wild to know what kind of

fae or folk tradition it's tapping into. am also wondering if the fact i liked it so much also just suggests i should just read more folk horror. or like, stephen king

. i did consistently find interest in the collection, though.
scholes' introduction is also good, and i liked her comments about the unexpected juxtapositions of arranging a collection alphabetically by surname. i'm so conditioned by bibliographies and library shelves that her reminder that this was, in fact, unusual, was valuable. and there were some interesting theme moments that definitely came from it: 'the birds' followed by 'the land girl' comes to mind, with the former framing the latter in terms of the horrors and madnesses of big empty countryside, in a way the story absolutely wouldn't have delivered to me otherwise.