Last Train to Dogtown/The Little Mermaid (Storycuts)

Last Train to Dogtown/The Little Mermaid (Storycuts)

Summary

In 'Last Train to Dogtown', Neil K. is a bestselling author, feted and acclaimed wherever he goes. Until the evening his train maroons him in the middle of nowhere, and after wandering into a bar, he is confronted by a group of characters who are all strangely familiar...

In 'The Little Mermaid', every Tuesday is reserved for Freak Day at the pool, when the disabled, the impaired and the elderly come to bathe without disturbing the able-bodied. Sad Flipper, so deformed and ungainly in her wheelchair, is as agile and graceful as a dolphin in the water. But will she be tempted to sacrifice her uniqueness for love?

Part of the Storycuts series, these two short stories were previously published in the collection Jigs & Reels.

About the author

Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris is the internationally renowned and award-winning author of over twenty novels. Her Whitbread-shortlisted novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is the author of several other bestsellers, including The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé and The Strawberry Thief. She has also written acclaimed novels in such diverse genres as fantasy based on Norse myth (Runemarks, Runelight, The Gospel of Loki), and the Malbry cycle of dark psychological thrillers (Gentlemen & Players, Blueeyedboy, and Different Class).

Born in Barnsley, of an English father and a French mother, she spent fifteen years as a teacher before (somewhat reluctantly) becoming a full-time writer. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE, and in 2022 an OBE. She lives in Yorkshire, plays bass and flute in a band first formed when she was sixteen, and works in a shed in her garden. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and served for four years as Chair of the Society of Authors. She also has a form of synaesthesia which enables her to smell colours. Red, she says, smells of chocolate.
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