SYNOPSIS (The story in brief)

The Best of Fiona Kidman's Short Stories (Vintage)

Brief summary of the book:

The Best of Fiona Kidman's Short Stories contains 37 stories, some previously uncollected, and some new, written in the period 1968-1998.

Those that were previously collected appeared in Mrs Dixon and Friend, Unsuitable Friends and The Foreign Woman (Mrs Dixon and Friend was short-listed for the New Zealand Book Awards, and The Foreign Woman for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards). It includes "Hats", perhaps Fiona Kidman's best-known short story, about the respective mothers of the bride and groom at a wedding and how they express their anxieties about the marriage in a dispute about their hats.

The new stories are "Old and Constant Friends", about a school reunion, and two love stories, "Habits of Love" and "Tell Me the Truth About Love" (with thanks to W.H.Auden for a great title)