Carnbeg Piccalilli

Ronald Frame returns to his fictional Highlands spa resort, Carnbeg - with forays to twin towns in India and Australia - and comes up with another highly compelling collection of short stories. Travel 'true north' to be entertained by these humane narratives of very diverse lives, some everyday and others far from ordinary.A TV chef who watches helplessly as his career goes into freefall – warring Santa Clauses in rival department stores – a personal make-over with unexpected consequences – the couple who decide to live as 1940s people – the back-story of a gent’s panama hat found in a charity shop. A world-famous violinist makes a discovery in a TA drill hall – a dreaded royal visitor walks into Mr ffinch’s antiques shop – an eminent archaeologist is haunted beyond reason by his own past – a piano teacher finds she has a wunderkind on her hands – a vintage Chanel suit remains frustratingly out of reach for its keenest admirer. The results range from sinister to romantic to tragic to downright farcical. For seasoned devotees, one reading is unlikely to be enough ...