The Haunting of Chas McGill and other stories

Not all eight are as superb as the title story but it's still a feast. There's a shape-changing cat in love with a man. There's a ghost that isn't allowed to be and a story of bikers. These two very different stories, interestingly, use the same setting. A short story and a short life for Martin in future England, 'a land of equal opportunity; to be unemployed' where qualities like ingenuity and initiative are bad news. Sally inherits a house on condition that she lives alone: but the house has an inhabitant. A young man facing unemployment in 1982 timeslips fifty years back to glimpse real hardship. The Agony Aunt letter about the Dracula Tour is funny; try using the voice of Thelma in the Likely Lads. The Chas McGill story is funny, beautiful and moving. It lingers with you - though the experience Chas has is wiped from his memory, in fact the story cancels itself out. Don't miss it.