Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good

The stunning new collection of stories from the award-winning author of The Liar’s Dictionary and Attrib. and Other Stories.

Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good is a virtuoso new short story collection from James Tait Black Memorial Prize-winner, Eley Williams. Rich in masterful characterisation, the stories explore uncertainty and how we grapple with it, as well as misunderstandings and confusions in a world that appears bound by rules and codes, both spoken and unspoken. The collection features the story ‘Scrimshaw’ which was shortlisted for 2020 BBC National Short Story Award.

Praise for Eley Williams:

'She is a writer for whom one struggles to find comparison, because she has arrived in a class of her own’ Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent

'Funny, playful and utterly bravura’ Melissa Harrison, Financial Times

'It's exhilarating to dive into the associative rush of Williams's writing’ Vanity Fair