From the predictable opening story to the pretentious final story, this volume contains a lot of clever writing. Rarely, though, does it grab you. The bios show that most contributors have experience of university writing courses, which is perhaps a reason for their similarity of approach: I suspect they are tempted to write for each other as much as for the wider public. Perhaps, to cite Ayi Kwei Armah, “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”.