Shielding of Mrs Forbes

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. Thinking Betty was in the bath Graham was watching a late-night programme on Channel 4 called Footballers with Their Shirts Off when she unexpectedly came in on the trail of the hairdryer.'I didn't know you were interested in football,' said Betty.No one must ever find out that Graham is 'not the marrying sort'. Certainly not his wife, or his mother. As sex, blackmail and fanatical tidiness take over the West Yorkshire parish of Alwoodley, an unlikely caper unfolds.Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

Alan Bennett has been a leading dramatist since Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His works include Talking Heads, Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III (and the Oscar-nominated screenplay), an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, The History Boys, The Habit of Art, People, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks. Prose collections: Writing Home, Untold Stories (PEN/Ackerley Prize, 2006) and Keeping On Keeping On; and his poetry anthology, Six Poets, Hardy to Larkin. Fiction includes The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories.