Transported

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
a half-day holiday decree

A well-known poet pursues his elusive muse; a Kiwi makes himself indispensable in Oz; a revolutionary fast-food franchise revs up Russia's economy; a racing-car driver is airborne; temperate Otago exports its kiwifruit worldwide; a Frenchman called Foucault puts in the hard yards at an antipodean dairy farm – all while water laps at our feet, our homes, our lives... With Tim Jones' stories you should expect the unexpected. This remarkably refreshing collection uses a lively mix of genres, taking readers on flights of fancy, transports of delight, and even occasional trips of nostalgia. Some of the stories are unique ways of looking at the everyday and ordinary, others take us out of this world. They are funny, moving, insightful and, above all, delightfully different.

Contents:

• Rat Up a Drainpipe
• Said Sheree*
• When She Came Walking
• A Short History of the 20th Century, With Fries
• Win a Day with Mikhail Gorbachev!
• The New Neighbours*
• Sisters
• Not Wanted on Voyage
• Jim Clark*
• Alarm
• The Wadestown Shore*
• Filling the Isles*
• Homestay
• The Visit of M. Foucault to His Brother Wayne
• Borges and I
• Measureless to Man*
• The Seeing*
• After the War
• Best Practice*
• Robinson in Love*
• Going Under*
• Morning on Volkov
• The Royal Tour
• Queen of the Snows
• Going to the People
• Cold Storage*
• Books in the Trees

* = original to this collection