SOURCE: “People of a Certain Age,” in Times Literary Supplement, December 6, 1996, p. 22.

In the following review of A Hand at the Shutter, Smith comments on King's “sly” storytelling and on the brave female characters found in this collection of stories.

A Hand at the Shutter brings together sixteen of Francis King's stories, half of them already published in journals and anthologies, written over a period of thirteen years. Elegant, well-bred stories, ranging in location from Maida Vale to Slovenia, Buenos Aires to Japan, they form a varied, subtly challenging collection which confirms the author's creative longevity. King focuses on characters of a certain age and class and places them in circumstances fraught with emotional significance. Thus, “Sukie” ends with an elderly visiting lecturer, desperate to believe in the tears of the prostitute he has rejected—“That could not be acting, could not!” Elsewhere, obsession, loneliness and frustration provide...