Hilary Mantel is one of Britain’s most accomplished and acclaimed writers. In these ten bracingly transgressive tales, all her gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged, ushering concealed horrors into the light. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in ‘Comma’:nurses clash in ‘Harley Street’ over something more than professional differences: and in the title story, staying in for the plumber turns into an ambiguous and potentially deadly waiting game.
