Fables

Inanimate objects take life and animals speak in T. F. Powys''s collection of fables, which was first published in 1929: a dish-cloth and an old pan, lying on a rubbish heap, discuss the emotional intricacies of the household that has discarded them; the efforts of a determined spinster to marry off all her furniture end in tragedy; a rabbit takes advice from a viper to avenge the death of her son. Set in the Dorset countryside that also inspired Powys''s novels, these are tales of morality, original and surprising, as all good fables should be.