Considering the habit British reviewers have of sneeringly dismissing creative writing courses as an American invention, it really is outrageous to see the arrival of an entire volume of largely pretentious short stories hailing from Bradbury's 25 year old Creative Writing Course at the University of East Anglia.
Particularly irritating, arrogant and inaccurate is the foolhardy decision made by either Bradbury or his publisher to hype these stories as "the best of contemporary short fiction". The best of contemporary short fiction from where, exactly? The world? Surely not. Britain? Let's hope not. How about "the best of contemporary fiction written in East Anglia?" Most of the 31 stories gathered here merely serve to illustrate the laboured dullness of contemporary British fiction. Of course former Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro is included, as are Ian McEwan, Rose Tremain, Clive Sinclair. Irish writers Anne Enright, Deirdre Madden and Glenn Patterson do well, with Enright's "Felix" easily top of this particular class.
