Constitutional

A masterful contemporary exponent of the genre. Simpson now deserves to be compared with Flannery O’Connor and Alice Munro – Robert McCrum * Observer *
Simpson’s use of language is remarkable: she handles prose with the risky precision of a trapeze artist, swooping and tumbling through empty air, seeming certain at moments to succumb to whimsy or sentimentality but at the last moment recovering her grasp on the deftly constructed framework of her narratives. It’s a virtuoso performance; its effect on the reader both consoling and exhilarating – Jane Shilling * Sunday Telegraph *
She is a virtuoso… Briskly melancholic, dazzlingly pertinent short stories about women’s lives and how they survive * Sunday Times *
Subtle, emotional, humorous, painful and acute… It’s a small masterpiece * Independent *
The brilliance of the conceits and the complex economy that shapes the best of these tales, match and surpass any of Helen Simpson’s earlier writing – Stevie Davies * Guardian *
Together with the biting humour, there is aching sadness and real tenderness, making this collection up there with the best of this genre – Michelle Stanistreet * Sunday Express *
Constitutional is Helen Simpson fourth collection of short stories and shows some fine developments in one of the Short Story forms more accomplished practitioners – Helen Simpson * NB *

Helen Simpson is the author of six short-story collections: Cockfosters, Four Bare Legs in a Bed (1990), Dear George (1995), Hey Yeah Right Get a Life (2000), Constitutional (2005) and In-Flight Entertainment (2010). A Bunch of Fives- Selected Stories (2012) includes five stories from each of her first five collections. She has received the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Hawthornden Prize and the E.M.Forster Award. She lives in London.

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