Ali Smith is one of the UK's most inventive and invigorating writers of short fiction, and a champion of the form. In 2001 Penguin published her Booker-shortlisted Hotel World, celebrated for its exquisite lyricism and playful voice. Ali Smith's Supersonic 70s, compiled by her specially for the Pocket Penguin series, is Smith on top form: showcasing her mastery of the short story and her ability to conjure entire worlds out of just a few pages.

Mrs Flood rolled the blackboard up and she read again what Sally had written on it. She added some accents to some e's, she put a chalk line through les lettres fran‡aises and wrote above, the word pr‚servatif. Then she pushed the board right up and wrote in large letters, bangles jangling in the silence, the words Look Upon The World With Love. Then she sat down at the table.

Write that down, she said, write it all down. Heads bent, you wrote it in your jotters, the words look upon the world with love, then you looked around at each other, and you carried on writing down the words on the board, the sex words Sally had found in the dictionary. You were writing until all of a sudden the Ark slammed the dictionary shut and said firmly, now, get out. Go on, she said when nobody moved, go on, off you go, get out, and slowly, unsurely, you all packed your books up and went, the people at the back had to pick their way through the webs of string tied between the desks, and it wasn't until you were out in the corridor that you opened your eyes wide at your friends around you and you all made faces at each other as if to say God! And it wasn't until you were on the turn of the stairs that you let yourself say out loud God! what was all that about? and laughter broke out, and the whole class was clattering madly down the stairs, so noisy that the secretary came out of the headmaster's office to see what was happening and the class was rounded up and made to sit on the floor in the hall until it was time for the next period, and several of your friends were personally interviewed about it by the headmaster though you weren't. Mrs Flood was off school for three months and when she came back you didn't have her any more though you always smiled hello at her even though she was obviously a weirdo.

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