Short Stories for Children

For many people, Walter de la Mare is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But the majority of his short stories have long been unavailable. Short Stories for Children starts with "Broomsticks and Other Tales" of 1925, with its 12 stories, and continues with "The Lord Fish" of 1933 with 7 stories. Quirky, disparate, unpredictable, acutely observed, sometimes frightening, and often preoccupied with states of mind and personal identity, these stories have much in common with the adult stories. We find ourselves in railway trains, a mansion in the City of London, a remote farm house near the sea, and a drawing-room being watched by a fly; and among other things, we encounter a wise monkey, a haunted cat, a fish magician, a man who believes he has a wax nose, and a godmother celebrating her 350th birthday. As in de la Mare's poems, everyday reality may at any time become undercut by disturbing uncertainty and dark, though not always malign, forces.