Theatrical, cruel, and implausible events

My old mate Ellis Sharp has sent me a copy of his new book, Dead Iraqis. Already reviewed enthusiastically in the Guardian by Nicholas Lezard, and with shout-outs by China Mieville, Lee Rourke, Iain Banks and me across the cover, this greatest hits compilation can't be expected to get a cool, objective review here, and it isn't going to get one. In the long-vanished fanzine New Dawn Fades, I described the stories in one of Sharp's earlier collections (from which four of the stories in this selec