The Wardrobe

Daphne Glazer has provided us with twenty short stories linked, as the title suggests, by the subject of clothes: from bras, knickers and thongs to hats, coats and shoes. In these witty and quirky stories, clothes are potent symbols, often of identity, sometimes of supressed desires.

For some the cut of a T-shirt is crucial. relationships founder on the wearing of a corselet. Romance flourishes over a pair of stockings. The sight of a thong in a leisure-centre changing room indirectly affects the outcome of a blind date. The gift of a coat, a dressing gown, a swimsuit or a jacket can have unexpected and even devastating consequences for the recipient. Clothes are a way of making a statement, although what the wearer intends may not be what the viewer percieves. There is plenty of humour in these compact and very accessible stories but there can also be pathos. One of Daphne Glazer's achievements in this collection is to write as well about men as about women.

Daphne Glazer was born in Sheffield but now lives in Hull with her family and parrot, Squawter. She intersperses her writing life with visits to several prisons, conducting creative-writing workshops in a wide variety of venues, yoga sessions, and swimming in the local Victorian baths. Many of her stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. She has published three previous collections, The Last Oasis, Dressing Up and Love and Loss, as well as two novels, Three Women and The Cutting Edge.