Playing Sardines by Michele Roberts

Playing Sardines – a game in the dark, a game about desire, about wanting, all whipped up in a tale about the erotic allure of recipes: a cook whose obsessive love turns hungry and dangerous; a fan who tries to get into a celebrity novelist’s sheets; a fanatical dieter and maker of lists working out how to deal with a husband who snores; a faddy eater thrown off-course by a miracle; a child greedy for love who faces up to her demon of jealousy – just some of the characters who shape this wonderful collection.

Women yearning for what they haven’t got – prepared to be wily, deceptive, cunning and perverse – all these strategies for survival in love and life are deployed here to mouth-watering effect.

'To read a book by her is to savour colour, sound, taste, texture and touch as never before' - THE TIMES

'Written in a prose as sharp as a Sabatier knife.' - Guardian