This collection is deeply rooted in the ethos of the eighties and nineties: so much so that it's surprising the publishers didn't include a set of shoulder-pads with it. It's all about people who know what they want and are out to get it for themselves. Plenty of elegant — and occasionally comic — revenge, plenty of backstabbing, not much compassion or conventional morality. What Weldon means by "wicked" seems to be that her characters don't see any need to abide by the rules, even if they expect other people to do so.

The stories are witty in a Saki kind of way, with some very clever lines ("She was too like her mother: the irony had entered her soul..."), but they ring the changes on a rather narrow set of themes, so while the individual stories are very good, it's not all that rewarding to read the whole collection together. ( )

Superb writing, tongue firmly in cheek, reminded me of how very good a well-constructed short story can be. I will read more Fay Weldon! ( )

Wicked women, wicked men and wicked children people these short stories. Fay Weldon seems to have rather a low opinion of family life as there is hardly a happy relationship to be seen in these pages. ( )