He's mostly a novelist. These piece seem to be previously unpublished - never a good sign.
- How to tell a short story - In a pub Tim discusses his short-story plot ideas with his wife. The first idea (son borrowing dad's car and having an accident) mutates until it becomes "coming-out grandpa borrows grand-daughter's pink car". During the discussion comparisons are made to Mark Haddon's "The Pier Falls". An unflattering review of Tim's previous work is mentioned. Further twists are added. At the end he says "I'm beginning to think it's a novel. Wait till you hear Chapter Two". She replies "Oh, good grief". It's OK. Light. More fun to write than to read, I'd guess.
- Blue - A old man, knowing he's dead, continues buying cigarettes, seeing his own funeral, etc. When he asks why he wasn't shown the beauty of the world before, he rises to heaven. An old idea that needs a new spark. No.
- Harvest - A young widow with kids realises that the vegetables they grow may contain her late husband's DNA, She feeds then to the kids. No.
- Fidelity - The narrator (a father) goes to a festival with student mates. Bill tempts him to reveal a secret to "her". Cal and Sara have wanted kids for a decade.
- Invisible children - In the night there's a torrential storm. "Have you told her yet?" asks Bill again. Sara's fed up and wants to go home. The narrator offers. Next thing (without the reactions of Bill or Cal) they're in his car. Back at London she invites him in for a bath. Instead he drives home to Oxford.
Well researched, but another dud. Maybe it's time to cut my losses. - Chemistry - 50 pages. Liz and John (Oxford lecture) have children Andrew (27, a loner, labourer) and Sophie (29, sex and drugs issues as a teenager). Andrew goes to Krakow. Liz visits him. He's interested in a hermitage. She returns to find John dead in bed. Later Andrew visits her with Monika. They both work for a company organising stag events. They decide to stay in England. Monika and Liz start "Oxford Oddjobs" employing local Poles. Andrew lives in a tent in a field with a Bible. Liz thinks her children reacted against their parents' atheism by seeking transcendent experiences. She visits her parents' grave with Monika. The ending is "The pair strolled out of the graveyard, towards the car, scheming and teasing the future, turning from morality back to this world, and hope of the life to come". No.
- Hunters in the forest - Ben (his PoV, 3rd person) is going to uni, Phil into the army, so with Jimmy they have a goodbye do - hunting (with air-gun and bow) then sleeping out. Hoping for deer they end up with 4 rabbits which they eat with vodka and Scotch. Next morning they see deer, follow them through fog then shoot. But they hit a pony. They sneak away. No.
- Brothers at the beach - Simon (his PoV) is going on a beach holiday with his wife and kids. His unreliable brother James plus new girlfriend Delilah and Julian (a musical young teenager) turn up in a campervan. Their parents were a GP and a teacher but neither boy has done well - Simon's an artist who depends on his wife's reliable income). James however has had debts that their parents paid off. To Simon's surprise the brothers get on ok this holiday, competing at building a sandcastle. But on a walk together the brothers argue about the validity of their lifestyles and start fighting. Simon is hurt and James plus family leave. Simon's wife (who dislikes James) misinterprets the fight. The best story so far.
- Rapture - Bill looks after the dogs and his 2 young kids while his wife earns steady money. He watches his clumsy little daughter Lily play. He's with a mother whose boy Doug is more nimble. She's separated. Lily reminds Bill of his own sister, who ended up a happy adult. He criticises the coffee. She blames men for life in general. He realises she's not chatting him up. He goes to the toilet. When he returns he can't see Lilly. After an anxious search he finds her happily buried in the ball pool. He met a guy he used to go clubbing with. He recalls his face of rapture in a club. It's the same expression as his pre-toddler has now when filling a nappy.
- Generation to generation - The narrator and his wife Alli live in a tower block. She works sometimes in a charity shop (a useful source of details for the story). He has a wandering train of thought - not the kind of narrator we've met before. - "Dex acknowledged me with a cursory nod" sounds wrong though. They want kids. His often-drunk brother offers to help. While the 2 of them have sex the narrator's neighbour, as a treat, take him onto the roof.
- Blood Moon - Jemma is assaulted. 8 of the 15 pages is a meticulous description of the fight. At the end Jemma's in a position to kill the man. Well, it's certainly different from the other pieces.
- Cinema - A little boy is left in the cinema with a bag of sweets while his mother takes his sister to the doctors. A women strokes his legs and leaves. Only 3 pages. I don't get it.
- Through the tunnel - Stella (her PoV), her older brother, his friend Bobby, and her dad go to beaches during the day, or on walks. Aunt Jif's caring for her mother who's bedridden with cancer. The mother criticises her husband, and says that Jif likes caring for her, that Jif has always been jealous of her (Cambridge degree, looks, etc). One day, alone, Stella finds a deserted beach and meets 6 youths a little older than her. They don't speak English. A beautiful girl is amongst them. Back home, she hears her brother have sex with reluctant Bobby for the first time. She meets the gang again - no fat boy. She mock-fights with a fat boy. Her mother's faith strengthens. Her father's not a believer. She snorkels for the first time with the gang - underwater it's a magic world. One of the boys in the gang puts her hand down his trunks. She meets the gang another day, 3 of them. The beautiful girl kisses her. The 3 jump into a pool with sheer sides and disappear - holding their breath? She jumps in without thinking, realising there must be an underwater tunnel. She takes it. One evening they carry their mother to the beach on a lilo. While the others are busy, Stella tows her mother on it and pushes her out to open sea. Maybe the best story.
Several of the husbands are freelance, their wives having regular jobs. There are 3 useful pages of notes explaining the genesis of the stories. As influences he mentions John Cheever, James Salter, Helen Simpson, Lucia Berlin and Doris Lessing.
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