Kingsley Amis wrote short stories throughout his five decades as a published novelist, some of them character or situation sketches which stand next to the novels, others daring experimentations with genre. For the first time these stories are collected in one volume - the literary detective piece 'Mr Barrett's Secret' rubbing shoulders with the unsettling science fiction of 'A Twitch on the Thread' and the subtle drama 'All the Blood Within Me'. He will be remembered primarily as a comic novelist, and there is much in these stories that will raise a smile, but they also demonstrate his remarkable range and sense of adventure.