A mixed bag of stories by British SF authors from the 1960s and 1970s. The best are very good - amongst them are those by Bob Shaw, Christopher Priest, David S. Garnett, Aldiss, Ballard and Josephine Saxton. One or two authors such as Barrington J. Bailey aren't to my taste and there are other stories by writers that I generally admire, but who aren't at their best in this collection.

What follows is a brief overview of each story (no spoilers) and brief opinions of each.

Sober noises of morning in a marginal land: Brian W Aldiss

A political prisoner in a future world where there is One State describes his incarceration and interrogation with occasional observations from his interrogator. Reality is uncertain from the start and becomes more so as the story progresses. Prefigures in tone Aldiss's later novel "Harm."

A place and a time to die - J G Ballard

Classic Ballard setting - a deserted town, two lone male protagonists uncomfortable in each other's company. In this case they are awaiting the advance of a vast (?Chinese) army from across the river. It reaches them with typical anticlimax. A Ballard mood piece.

The Giaconda Caper - Bob Shaw

A classic noir opening, the mafia and comedy. And an increasingly outlandish tale involving lost treasures of Da Vinci. As well as producing some more paintings it seems he invented a few things we weren't aware of either. Perfectly written and ideally compact; I'm amazed I haven't seen this anthologized elsewhere.

The Vitanuls - John Brunner

A story that I could more easily have imagined coming from Arthur C Clarke rather than this author; it shares some of his tastes regarding settings and themes, and the final twist. The story starts with an observer from the WHO viewing the final shift of a respected obstetrician in an Indian hospital. The observer has a secret, slowly revealed, and it is connected in unexpected ways with what is happening to births here and around the world - and to the changed career of our obstetrician.

The twist, such as it is, is obvious early on in the story but Brunner still manages to keep the reader's interest and paint a vivid picture.

Whores - Christopher Priest

One of Priest's tales of the Dream Archipelago, a soldier returning from war with a mind badly affected by the conflict. With all the power of the other stories in this series.

Warlord of Earth - David S Garnett

A man from the world of sword and sorcery comes to California. He likes it, but not a lot. Which of these worlds is more real, anyway?

A simple idea well executed, with thought and humour.

The Time beyond age: A journey - Robert Holdstock

Scientists conduct an experiment on human beings involving accelerated aging.

A psychological mood-piece in which we learn only about the observers, not the observed.

Dormant Soul - Josephine Saxton

A story that begins conventionally as a woman sees her doctor about unspecified nagging illness that rapidly goes somewhere far more other-wordly.

This is unquestionably English fiction, the setting and the characters being difficult to imagine elsewhere. The house, the police, the GP, the phone bill, are all of a place and time. An unusual story and a writer I'll look out for elsewhere.

The radius riders - Barrington J Bailey

Military SF set in a battle vessel that burrows through the Earth. It left me cold, I'm afraid.

Traveller's rest - David I Masson

A story that begins on the frontline of a war and slowly moves away from it, making clear in the process that some strange process of time compression operates between the front and the relatively peaceful hinterlands. The conclusion didn't come as a surprise but that doesn't detract from a powerful story which fits a lot of emotion in a small space.

To the pump room with Jane - Ian Watson

A strange retelling of scenes from Jane Austen's "Persuasion", borrowing more than a little from her style. Set in an altered Victorian England in which icebergs must be towed there to relieve shortages of fresh water brought about through climate change. It's effective as a tour-de-force but I wasn't quite taken by it.

Weinachtabend - Keith Roberts

An alternative history set in an England in which Germany won the second World War. But the story is about totalitarian control and corruption brought on by power which could have had many settings. Most unsettling. ( )