Learning to Swim: And Other Stories

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The stories in this collection first appeared as follows: “Seraglio,” “Hoffmeier’s Antelope,” “The Hypochondriac,” and “Hotel” in the London Magazine; “Gabor” and “The Son” in Punch; “Learning to Swim” in New Stories 3 and “Cliffedge” in New Stories 5; “The Watch” in Firebird 1; “Chemistry” in Winter’s Tales 27; and as a broadcast on BBC Radio 3. “The Hypochondriac” has also appeared in Formations (University of Wisconsin Press).

MRS. SINGLETON HAD THREE TIMES thought of leaving her husband. The first time was before they were married, on a charter plane coming back from a holiday in Greece. They were students who had just graduated. They had rucksacks and faded jeans. In Greece they had stayed part of the time by a beach on an island. The island was dry and rocky with great grey and vermilion coloured rocks and when you lay on the beach it seemed that you too became a hot, basking rock. Behind the beach there were eucalyptus trees like dry, leafy bones, old men with mules and gold teeth, a fragrance of thyme, and a café with melon seeds on the floor and a jukebox which played bouzouki music and songs by Cliff Richard. All this Mr. Singleton failed to appreciate. He’d only liked the milk-warm, clear blue sea, in which he’d stayed most of the time as if afraid of foreign soil. On the plane she’d thought: He hadn’t enjoyed the holiday, hadn’t liked Greece at all. All that sunshine. Then she’d thought she ought not to marry him.

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