Originally published in 1940, Fred Urquhart's first collection of short stories brings to life the modern Scotland of the 1930s, using his inimitably vivid dialogue. He shows the struggles of working-class women, whether labouring in a sweatshop, facing death in a tuberculosis hospital or seeking escape on a bike of her own. His male characters also have problems, caused by army life, religion or homosexuality in a period of oppression. Life is sometimes overshadowed by the approach of war. But there is comedy too, for example a fraught day at Glasgow's Empire Exhibition of 1938. And Urquhart...

Jezebel's Dust is the story of two young teenage girls infected by the love of uniforms in Edinburgh and London early in the war. They come from the slums and have no very high education or expectations, but the war is opening up new possibilities. Lily McGillivray is the chief man-eater and increasingly a 'good time girl'. She exploits and encourages her more passive and awkward friend Bessie Hipkiss, leading her astray with energy, as they meet up with sailors and soldiers, Free French, Polish and American. Ambition, sex, money and idleness are Lily's motivators. All the old standards are...

This is the first publication of the last collection of his short stories that Fred Urquhart planned, and displays the full range of his work.

Fred Urquhart's lively collection of stories deals with life in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and demonstrates his fascination with American culture and its effect on Britain. The title story - a highly amusing satirical novella - presents a young Scotswoman who is desperate to cross the Atlantic as a war bride in order to get to Hollywood, armed with a tartan skirt and a copy of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Other stories portray an eccentric woman who has watched too many films, an American musician who has been luckless in his marriages, and an Edinburgh office where the...