Frank Sargeson's Collected Stories really are worth reading. Unlike so many of his Australian neighbours, Mr Sargeson, a New Zealander, eschews the Wild West figures of the antipodean past, and substitutes for the cracker-barrel philosophy of the outback a rare and welcome gentleness. With the speed of the real short-story man, and with unpretentious efficiency, he can snap his characters into life in the sort of introduction that doesn't let you go: 'Mrs Clegg was quite a decent sort, but she had a glass eye that was cracked right down the middle, and it was funny the way she sort of looked out at you through the crack'. Though writing in a contemporary manner, Mr Sargeson belongs with the traditional mainstream of the short story. He tries no modish tricks: he is far too good for that. Mr E. M. Forster remarks in his introduction to this volume...