Wait till I tell you - Candia McWilliam

'Her words sparkle and fizz. She's never dull or conversational. Her work is like poetry in its scrupulousness and writerly care, yet at the same time it's devastatingly everyday . . . Tuck into this mouth-watering collection for sustenance and delight' Michle Roberts, Independent on Sunday

'For sheer writerly distinction this year, my palm goes to Candia McWilliam for her collection of short stories' Joanna Trollope, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

'McWilliam's minute observation, structural finesse and wry humanity give full voice to the many dimensions of her subject matter' Lucy Atkins, Guardian

'The flaunt of the writing asks for admiration . . . this is Candia McWilliam at her remarkable best' Helen Dunmore, The Times

'The language is beautiful - packed, characteristically, with felicities so generous that it is perhaps better not to read these stories one after the other, but savour them one at a time, slowly' Eliza Charlton, Sunday Telegraph

'These pieces are sharp glances and eccentric explorations that make us wait - pleasurably - for their slow, subtle graces to dawn on us' Sylvia Brownrigg, Independent

'McWilliam is a magically original writer, arranging words like sweets, making phrases sumptuously fortuitous' Julie Myerson, Mail on Sunday

Candia McWilliam was born in Edinburgh in 1955. She is the author of A Case of Knives (1988), A Little Stranger (1989), and Debatable Land, which was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1994.