A second volume of short stories from Alexei Sayle, and better than his first, which I also enjoyed. Characters going through the ordinary motions of a normal life are caught up in bizarre events, or suddenly explode into violence, or teeter on the brink of violence and adjust to the bizarre.

My favourite stories were - Who Died and Left You in Charge, Clive a middle aged bookbinder, and part-time transvestite, is driven by his suggestibility to murder and Barcelona Chairs, where an ambitious architect's world collapses, this second story is full of sly references to politicians, professional quango fillers and other parasites of modern life - very funny. ( )