From the cruel irony of ‘A Member of the Family’ to the fateful echoes of ‘The Go-Away Bird’ and the unexpectedly sinister ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’, in settings that range from South Africa to the Portobello Road, Muriel Spark coolly probes the idiosyncrasies that lurk beneath the veneer of human respectability.

‘These stories are glittering, concise, funny and beautifully written’ – Daily Telegraph