Bus Stop Scheherazade, The

Reviews / Votes

There are ten short stories in this anthology, some by experienced storytellers, others by relatively new writers. All are very readable and written with style but some are more obscure than others. I tend to enjoy stories with a clear storyline and an unambiguous ending so the last three tales were my favourites.

I liked 'Sailing to Valhalla' by Bernard Harrington very much, partly because it is set in a part of Wales familiar to me many years ago, but mainly because it blends the story of an old man whose memory is failing with events which happened in his youth and it has a very credible ending.

'Money Matters' by Pat Hillyer is a black comedy which had me smiling and I did not anticipate the denouement.

'The Dame and the Dinosaur' by Bill Cariad was also a satisfying read with plausible characters, a convincing plot and a pleasing ending.

'The Wedding Dress' by Catherine Charter kept me absorbed but I found it a bit puzzling and sad.

'An Encounter' by Valmiki Ghosh is set in India and follows the impact of Rajan's daily encounter with an elderly whiskered man on his fraught relationship with his wife Deepa.

'Night Train' by Vee Swinburne is intriguing. It all happens when a train is held up at a continental border long enough to change the life of one of the passengers.

'Love Watching' by Jo Verity is a skilfully crafted story of a waitress in a French cafe who compares the intense relationship of a couple who call in the cafe, with her own waning romance.

'Too Many Flies' by Una Corbett is the story of an English daughter-in-law visiting her husband's aging family in a small South Wales semi. Relationships are tense and there is a family secret but it was unclear to me what that secret was.

'Stansted' by Liz Granirer, describes an incident at Stansted airport when an erring husband is waiting for his wife to pick him up after a trip abroad.

The title story, 'The Bus Stop Scheherazade', by Douglas Bruton, is a dreamy version of the 'boy meets girl' genre, with many classical references and somewhat confusing changes of identity. It is rather beguiling and has a romantic ending. -- Beryl Thomas @ www.gwales.com