“During the hour of perusal, the soul of the reader is at the writer’s control” Edgar Allan Poe . 

A Bad Lot is a collection of twenty-four short stories. Twenty-four stories each in a different style, set in different times and in different places showing the frailty that humans are capable of. 

The Neapolitan thief can almost be forgiven, and the lone woman in the Manor house might have been more perceptive about her suitor. The Cambridge lawyer had no guts; lies have short legs in a Caribbean resort. A crush on a police inspector is a poor excuse for some behaviour, and buying a holiday home in the sunny Algarve may have its downfalls but, for her love of dogs, the woman from Norfolk will have to be rewarded in heaven. Whether giraffes have mythical powers is questionable, while being slave to a Nordic god could confuse any young man. Yes, the world around us is full of surprises.  

We have all come across the feelings these characters in A Bad Lot experience. Our senses record the world around us but, in our brains, it is our frail humanity that overlays the information with illusion – our vanity, jealousy, sexuality, insecurity, love, ambition and guilt warp our perception. This anthology of short stories takes us on an entertaining tour of our capacity for self-deception. Lyrical and clever, they tackle the challenges of our demons.