Fresh apples

Eleven wry and defiant stories on the power and beautiful transience of youth. Sarah's not abnormal or ugly, just a little bit fat, and she's got cerebral palsy. "No way was it rape or even molestation...she's fourteen, not a child. I'm not a paedophile." Gemma's mother had shagged Tom Jones. Nobody knew who her father was, least of all her mother. Spiderman doesn't want to inflict his petty thief persona on self-contained Caitlin, but he finds himself getting off at her stop. When her grand-dad's chickens start to peck each other, sounding like death warming up, Chelle rings one of their necks and ends up doing worse. Her gentle, exact punishment is met with even greater respect for the old man. Johnny Mental was sitting on his porch wearing sunglasses, drinking lager, his teeth orange and ugly. Someone was painting their front door a few yards away, with a portable radio playing soul music; Diana Ross or some shit. A big burgundy Vauxhall Cavalier came around the corner, real slow like an old man on a hill.