Shortly before her death Angela Carter was preparing this volume of short stories, one which does full justice to the glory of her imagination and the range of her talent. It is divided into distinct parts. The first comprises a group of stories inspired by America: Lizzie Borden visits a circus; a John Ford Western is spiced with the story of 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE' and there is a wonderful Gothic extravaganza set in Hollywood. The second section - OLD WORLD WONDERS - draws on fairy tales (Cinderella), on the story of Mary Magdalene, on the folklore of pantomime, on ALICE IN WONDERLAND, an on medieval legend. These stories represent Angela Carter at her most acrobatic and dazzling: erudite, witty, sexy and enthralling. A book to delight her many, many fans.

This collection of short stories confirms a great writer's matchless imagination and talent. A young Lizzie Borden visits the circus; a pianist makes a Faustian pact in a fly-blown Southern brothel; an earnest student is taken on a gothic ride through the ambiguous residue of Hollywood's golden age; Alice is transmuted by a crazed fruit-grower in Prague, and Mary Magdalene steps out of the canvases of Donatello and de la Tour, transfigured by wilderness and solitude.

"Angela Carter's admirers, denied the prospect of any more of her fat, rich, celebratory novels, will seize on the plump and piquant raisins in the book with gratitude" Times Literary Supplement

"Myths and movies, fairytales and pantomime mingle in celebration of her buoyant life" Mail-on-Sunday

"Carter's perspective on the American Dream is ironic and wry ... the collection is worth buying for the Lizzie Broden story alone" Michele Roberts, Sunday Express