Selected stories

James Kelman's oblique, wry and open-ended short stories reveal him to be a master of the form and this selection offers some of his best work from three separate collections. 'The bevel' and 'The hitch-hiker' tell of Chas, Sammy and 'the boy' working in the Highlands in the summer, while 'Pictures' and 'Lassies are trained that way' have their own take on the relationship between men and women. 'Old Francis' evokes a moment of existential terror in an urban park while 'In with the Doctor' takes a humorously Kafkaesque look at the medical profession and the class expectations that surround it.