No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

<p>Vibrant short stories have always been an integral part of Rosalind Brackenbury's output. In 1975 with three astonishing novels behind her she collected together 14 of the best to date. <em>No Such Thing as a Free Lunch</em> was published as a thick stapled booklet by a tiny press in Leicester with illustrations by her then husband. It has since become the most elusive of all her catalogue an absolute rarity.</p><p></p><p>These stories showcase Brackenbury's intense visual and sensual style applied to would-be familiar moments: in <em>The Visitor</em> a wandering friend suddenly reappearing in the life of a pregnant young couple in their first staleness causes a new vitalisation; in <em>A Bird Flew In</em> a young girl undergoes a crucial day of her childhood with a wilder friend; in <em>One in a Thousand</em> the struggling socially-outcast mother of a 'difficult' boy finds a sympathetic listener in a fellow theatregoer and reveals what she sees as her great sacrifice.</p><p></p><p>The volume also includes two groups of pieces: <em>Lemmings Revolution </em>and<em> The World's End</em> posit the strange meeting between ordinary domestic life and chilling scenarios where the usual certainties of life seem to be failing; the title story as well as <em>En vacances En voyage A la montagne</em> and <em>Dans le train</em> vividly symbolise the enlivening and catalysing quality of travel in France where relationships are propelled into new clarity by new surroundings.</p><p></p><p>The renowned writer A. L. Kennedy looks back at this extraordinarily bold and tactile collection in an introduction written specially for this new edition.</p>