SOURCE: "A High-Water Mark," in William Sansom: A Critical Assessment, Société d'Édition Les Belles Lettres, 1971, pp. 145-76.

In this excerpt from her book-length study of Sansom, Michel-Michot analyzes the stories in Lord Love Us, concluding that the collection is especially interesting because of "the way reality is heightened into art. "

Sansom finds his true self in the collection Lord Love Us. Here fancy is let loose but does not dwell on the sinister or the macabre as it did in many of the early stories, it is free to roam just for the fun and the beauty of it. Sansom succeeds in rendering the quality and the intensity of a moment's delight and the irrepressible zest that urges many of his protagonists to revel in their joy and delight. The characters are simple and ordinary people who have retained the power to marvel and to create...