Five Go to Switzerland and Other Stories

A daughter curious about her widowed father's love life; a woman survivor of domestic abuse; a wife who learns something startling about her jazz-loving husband at his funeral; an old actor facing memory loss; a couple whose son was executed by militants; a black American academic staying in Wordsworth country while his university investigates a student complaint; an early 20th-century scullery maid being taught to read by a sinister manservant…

In his fourth wide-ranging and vivid short-story collection, award-winning writer Nigel Jarrett disturbs the unresolved tensions beneath the clear, slow-flowing waters of ordinary lives.

‘Explaining what Jarrett does with language is a bit like trying to map gossamer with a chunky felt-tip.’

Mary-Ann Constantine

‘A polymath of the written word… Every page has something to savour.’

Jonathan Lee, Nation Cymru

‘Jarrett’s stories take seemingly ordinary situations and tease out their complexity.’

Lesley McDowell, The Independent

‘vivid and vital stories that crackle like bushfire and ignite delight… I read them with unbridled pleasure and holy envy.’

Jon Gower

About the Author

Nigel Jarrett is a Welsh writer, a former daily-newspaperman, and a double prizewinner. He won the Rhys Davies award for short fiction and the inaugural Templar Shorts award. His first collection of stories, Funderland, was published by Parthian and warmly reviewed in the Independent, the Guardian, and the Times. Parthian also published his first poetry collection, Miners At The Quarry Pool, described by Patricia McCarthy, editor of Agenda, as ‘a virtuoso performance’. His second full story collection, Who Killed Emil Kreisler?, was published by Cultured Llama in 2016; GG Books brought out his first novel, Slowly Burning, in the same year. Three years later, Templar published his story pamphlet, A Gloucester Trilogy, and in 2022 his fictional memoir, Notes From the Superhorse Stable, appeared from Saron Publishers and his fourth story collection, Five Go to Switzerland, from Cockatrice Books. Jarrett is a regular contributor to Jazz Journal, Acumen poetry magazine, Nation.Cymru, the Wales Arts Review, and other publications. He is included in Story, the Library of Wales's two-volume anthology of 20th- and 21st-century Welsh short fiction. He was for many years chief music critic of the South Wales Argus daily newspaper.

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Paperback


Paperback: ISBN: 978-1912368341 | Format: 12.7×20.3cm / 5×8” | Length: 222 pages | Price: £9.99.

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