Jottings: Flights of Fancy from Our Betty

JOTTINGS is a collection of the stories that Liz Smith has written over the years. Sometimes they explore the darker side of life and what may occur out of the public gaze: a rich and lonely housewife neglects her child and the nanny subjects her charge to unpleasant and adult scenes; a man's wish for fame catapults him into prison and mistaken notoriety; an unhappy wife loses her only friend and is haunted by her. Other stories are more amusing: the sexy, man-eating woman who runs the mobile library: moving through the fog of 1950's London with the help of a blind man; a scheming daughter who plans to take her mother's money has a surprising comeuppance. Liz's stories are unexpected, original and revealing of a writer who is fascinated by relationships and the barriers we erect between our public and private selves.