One of Aesop's Fables tells the story of a wager between the sun and the wind to see which can succeed in removing a traveller's heavy coat. The wind tries first but fails because the traveller simply buttons his coat even tighter than before. Only when the sun shines brightly does he finally remove it. This is a collection of short stories from Magnus Mills, author of The Restraint of Beasts and the first bus driver to be short-listed for the Booker Prize.