Isak Dinesen was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. After studying art, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke. Together they went to Kenya to manage a coffee plantation. After their divorce, she continued to run the plantation until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Denmark.

A collection of seven tales, whose settings range from Tuscany and Elsinore, to a dhow on its way from Lamu to Zanzibar. It is shot through with themes of love and desire - from the maiden lady who now believes herself to have been the grand courtesan of her time to the Count whose wife is so jealous that she cannot bear him to admire her jewels.

These five rich, witty and magical stories from the author of Out of Africa include one of her most well known tales, 'Babette's Feast', which was made into the classic film. It tells the story of a French cook working in a puritanical Norwegian community, who treats her employers to the decadent feast of a lifetime. There is also a real-life Prospero and his Ariel in 'Tempests', a mysterious pearl-fisher in 'The Diver' and a brief, tragic encounter in 'The Ring'. All the stories have a mystic, fairy-tale quality, linked by themes of angels, the sea, dreams and fate.