Description

The Urn by Malcolm Menzies is a collection of ten tales, all different but all linked by the description of varying aspects of the human condition. Set in different eras and locations - the Spanish Civil War, the Manchester Peterloo Massacre, post-war Liverpool, the Peruvian Shining Path - and each an adventure in its own right, these ten stories appear at first unconnected but in fact, as the reader progresses, there is a subtle and almost imperceptible thread that runs through them all, that of mans' struggle with life. Love, loss, passion, injustice and fate: all are apparent in this series of well-contrasted tableaux, each contributing insights into the lives of their defining characters and our own. With economical and atmospheric scene-setting and judicious deployment of narrative twists and turns, Malcolm Menzies proves a master of the difficult art of short story writing.