Tea at the Midland

The short story 'Tea at the Midland' won the BBC National Short Story Award, and its subtlety and depth provides the perfect opener for this collection, exploring themes of pilgrimage, instability, loneliness and identity. Every story is a tiny heartbreak; an attempt - and a failure - at two people making a connection. The people in the stories really do feel like people, rather than just fictional characters, and that is a testament to Constantine's carefully-honed craft and powers of observation. Although it may feel like nothing happens in some of the stories, in fact everything happens. Entire lives and relationships are crystallised in a brief conversation over tea.

The cover price is worth it just for the wonderful story 'Asylum': spare and devastating, it rewards the reader with a greater depth of meaning on each re-read. Short story collections can feel disconnected at times, but here the braiding-together of themes provides different perspectives in each story. The two longer pieces, 'The Island' and 'The House by the Weir and the Way', provide a structure and pace to hold the whole collection together. Tea at the Midland is an achingly beautiful collection of stories.