From tales of the supernatural to pungent social realism, and from the humorous to the disturbing, whether rural or urban, this anthology shows the vitality of the Scottish short story.

Douglas Dunn is Professor of English and Director of St Andrew's Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew's University. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981. He lives in Scotland. He was awarded an OBE in 2003.
Dunn's first collection of poetry, Terry Street, was published by in 1969, and was awarded both a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and a Somerset Maugham Award. Love or Nothing (1974) was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1976. His other poetry books include St. Kilda's Parliament (1981), winner of the Hawthornden Prize in 1981, and the acclaimed Elegies (1985), winner of Whitbread Book of the Year. Secret Villages, a collection of short stories, was published in 1985. More recent publications include a collection of short stories, Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1995), and three poetry collections, including New Selected Poems 1964-2000 (2002).