The Winter Wind

By Mab West

£9.99 Hardback

24 Short stories. Hardback. 176 pages.  £9.99 in most bookshops or click on BUY for direct link to Amazon discounted price, plus delivery.

These short stories are witty and original. Written with a style which will satisfy literary  readers, they are at the same time, thoroughly entertaining. They range from murder and mystery to fables and stories of animals: from funny to frightening and from idiosyncratic to down-to-earth. Some are very short in the manner of Borges, taking up only a snatch of time to read. Others – such as The Zipp, a story told in the first person by a mosquito, - are  two to four thousand words.

This very pretty hard backed volume is larger than a paperback (6 ½” x 9 ½”) and has two black and white illustrations.

This picture illustrates a conversation between two crows standing on the edge of the sea in Goa, India.

The following titlesare quoted from the total of 24 to give you an idea of the type and range of subject.

CHANCE ENCOUNTER is a telling psychological drama between a jaded married couple, which has an unexpected and inspiring outcome.

THE MONASTERY is a ghost story which all clergymen and women should read.

THE MISTRESS is a bitter sweet tale containing some very good advice.

THE COLONY is a science fiction story.

THE DESERT PICNIC is another married relationship, this time in trouble in the Iraqi desert.

THE WIZARD AND THE DOG illustrated by the picture below, is the story of an encounter in a garden in India, between a wizard and a visiting dog.

Fables

The Wizard and the Dog

A wizard was having a pleasant rest in his garden one day when a dog jumped in over the wall and began to wander about. This was not a dog the wizard had ever seen before, and now he watched as the animal went from bush to bush, his nose to the ground, sniffing here and sniffing there.
“What are you doing?” asked the wizard when the dog came near.
“Oh, just looking around for small animals,” said the dog.
‘What for?”
“Kill them usually.”
Such a blunt statement made it clear that this dog was of the rougher sort; and yet he had only said the truth. It does not make all that much difference whether you say you are looking for small animals to kill, or if you say “well, you see, I am a dog and therefore as I go about it may easily happen that I see a mole, or a rat, or even a bigger sort of thing like a rabbit, and it is my nature to bite it. We are made like that. It is not wrong for us”.
The wizard smiled kindly and said, “In your explorations you may come across some moles. Just be very careful not to harm the one who is a special friend of mine.”
“Agreed” said the dog. “How can I recognise him? Has he got any special mark by which I can know him?”
“No,” said the wizard.
“Then how can I tell?”
“That’s easy,” said the wizard. “You will be able to tell by what I will do to you afterwards.”
There was a moment of silence, while the dog tried to work this out. He knew there was something tricky going on here.

To read these and other stories in The Winter Wind, please