An excellent collection of stories. Davies has a consistently clear, unpretentious tone--although this consistency, combined with the first-person narration of many of the stories, has a tendency to flatten the characterization. (The Welsh outlaw in colonial South America, for example, sounds awfully similar to the contemporary mortuary assistant.) While the mix of contemporary and historical stories shows Davies' versatility, he seems to be at his best in the familiar, mistily nostalgic realm of fading Empire--a land beloved of many British authors and BBC teleplay producers. Perhaps my favorite story was "A Union," a respectful and moving glimpse of a Welsh quarrymen's strike at the turn of the 19th century.