Book review: The Dreams Of Bethany Mellmoth, by William Boyd

This is a collection of interlinked stories, from a writer whose work I have often admired. William Boyd almost specialises in a kind of gilded failure sort of character, and these short stories, and a novella which is as exquisite as it is aggravating, capitalise on his strengths as they reveal his weaknesses. Film-makers, novelists, photographers and actors flit through the pages; anxious, aggrieved, angry and angst-ridden.