I have read many of Tessa Hadley’s novels and enjoyed all of them. She is, I think, one of the most accomplished novelists working today and is certainly one whose new work I buy as soon as it’s published. Having bought After the Funeral as a birthday gift for a friend, I was curious to see how I would respond to a collection of Hadley’s short stories, so when I spotted a signed edition when I was killing time at Daunt’s bookshop in Cheapside, it felt like the right moment to find out.

The short story is such a demanding and unforgiving genre. In the hands of the very best practitioners (William Trevor is my favorite example), a short story can capture perfectly a whole world or a whole person in the span of a few pages. Done well, there’s nothing quite like the experience of reading a great story.

Many of the stories in After the Funeral catch people, and especially women, in those moments of particularly intense emotion. Funerals and weddings, of course, but also those extended rites of passage like the death of a parent; all of these feature. It’s a superb collection of stories, but that’s hardly surprising coming from someone so in command of her craft.