Helen Dunmore has been described as one of England's "most accomplished literary talents", a writer of extraordinary skill and scope (her third novel, A Spell of Winter, was awarded the Orange Prize for fiction in 1996). The 18 stories included in Ice Cream, Dunmore's second collection of short stories, represent a genuine diversity of viewpoint, period and theme. The opening story, "My Polish Teacher's Tie", is one of the strongest: "I wear a uniform, blue overall and white cap with the school logo on it. Part-time catering staff, that's me, £3.49 per hour." "Me" is Carla Carter, the dinner lady who, to the surprise of the "teachers"--the division between teachers and those who wait on them is keenly observed here--is going to strike up a friendship with a visiting Polish poet. It's a recurring theme: love, or friendship, that comes as a surprise to someone. In "Lilac", a young girl watches her cousin, Tommy, kissing his best friend, Henrik; in "Choosing", the unexpected kiss between two women transports two friends to a new, yet familiar, place: "How did they get here?" There are other surprises--some funny, some anxious--in these explorations of women's lives and experiences. "Leonardo, Michelangelo, SuperStork" is an unsettling vision of pregnancy in a world governed by the ruthless imposition of the ante-natal clinics and the "Genetic Code"; "TheKiwi-Fruit Arbour" explores the language of pregnancy--"Pregnant. Not pregnant. Mother-to-be. Young girl with her life in front of her"--through the eyes of a working-class teenage girl whose young lover comes from a "good" family.

Living up to Dunmore's reputation for originality, accessibility and flair, Ice Cream is a welcome addition to her fiction. --Vicky Lebeau

This text is a collection of stories from Helen Dunmore, ranging from Victorian tragedy to the tale of a dinner-lady's love, from the death of a lighthouse keeper's wife to the birth of babies from the Superstock catalogue.

2006-07-10 Intense, haunting stories

This collection showcases Helen Dunmore's ability to capture characters and worlds with her intense and lyrical words. The title story is a gorgeous and evocative tale of giving into temptation, while other subjects include pregnancy, family tragedy and the collision of different worlds. Fans of her previous short story collection, "Love of Fat Men", will be glad to see the reappearance of Ulli and her intriguing lifestyle, although she only gets two stories here.