Markham uses words with quicksilver fluency: the writing, playful and skilful, lends the intricate stories a dazzling sparkle * Metro *
Markham is a West Indian poet, academic and traveller with an interesting personal history which he has mythologised, satirised and transferred to Pewter Stapleton ... the protagonist of most of the stories in this new collection of sly, evasive narratives * Independent on Sunday *
These stories nourish and feed off one another to such an extent that they read like a kaleidoscopic novel that tells, in various voices and from different viewpoints, the lives of Pewter Stapleton and his family and friends ... This is a very funny and sometimes moving book, its deadpan wit embedded in almost every line -- William Palmer * Independent *
In defying the rules, Markham has a wonderfully original, eccentric charm * Guardian *
E.A. Markham moves freely between unserious topical references and the serious comedy of metafiction. Whichever it is, it is always beautifully written and, in the end, oriented towards the unknown, the lure of what lies beyond * TLS *

E. A. MARKHAM was born on the volcanic Caribbean island of Montserrat and went to school in 1950s London. After working in theatre in London and the Eastern Caribbean, he lived mainly in continental Europe in the 1970s, He was Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, where he headed the Creative Writing programme for 14 years, and, in 2006 Markham was Inter-national Writing Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. He was a member of the Royal Society of Literature. E.A. Markham died in 2008.