Short stories arrive to us in all shapes and sizes. Dishevelled small-town fables from darkest Wales. The human fragilities of a burnt-out doctor, counting the minutes. A beleaguered policeman with a rejuvenated wife. Diversions to other crises, big and small, from around the world.

In his first foray into fiction, Chris James's incendiary and acerbically witty collection of short stories is a perfectly observed study of the malaise of modern life.