'A selection of short stories, articles and poetry written by the author over a period of 30 years, many previously published in newspapers, magazines, and journals, and are here collected in book form for the first time. The stories examine the relationships between often-predatory men and the women they lovelessly and manipulatively use.

'In one story, a woman sleeps with boorish husband of her best friend. In others, the narrator’s friend dies of cancer and the husband falls apart, then reassembles himself most cheerfully around a much younger replacement; a girl’s German lesson turns into loveless sex; and a grandfather molests his own granddaughter. The poems treat similar themes, with grace and a clinical eye. The non-fiction pieces include a wry if slightly overwrought examination of being a student of French in Nice; evocation of life in Carlton before World War II; and evocation of life in Caulfield around World War II.' (Publication summary)