A collection of short stories written in English in the 1960s and 1970s, by well established authors living around the world, selected by Roger Sharrock to reflect a variety of short fiction of the period.

Preface. "Uncle Ben's choice", Chinua Achebe; "The green man revisited", Kingsley Amis; "Tithonus", George Mackay Brown; "The runaway", Morley Callaghan; "Concerto", Elspeth Davie; "Cockles and mussels", Susan Hill; "The Zulu and the Zeide", Dan Jacobson; "God's own country", Benedict Kiely; "The silver crown", Bernard Malamud; "A spot of leave", Olivia Manning; "The circle", Gordon Meyer; "A Christmas story", V.S.Naipaul; "A horse and two goats", R.K.Narayan; "Tigers are better-looking", Jean Rhys; "A hen and some eggs", Frank Sargeson; "A dedicated man", Elizabeth Taylor; "In at the birth", William Trevor; "The licence", Frank Tuohy; "Should Wizard hit Mommy?", John Updike; "Five-twenty", Patrick White.