James Tait's Tales of Odd consists of fourteen short stories.

They are contemporary tales, somewhere between Roald Dahl's celebrated Tales of the Unexpected and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis.

They explore a wide range of human emotions, including rape, incest, murder - and hundreds of garden snails intent on revenge.

There are, moreover, fairies in Evelyn's garden; a werewolf in Bethnal Green; a dangerous vandal lose in Venice; a disturbed young scientist in Posnan and an unexpected body in the river in Prague.

In short, Tales of Odd is strange, often surreal, sometimes dark, sometimes funny but always hugely entertaining.