Book review: Girl, Balancing & Other Stories, by Helen Dunmore

Helen Dunmore died a year ago, too young at 64, and at the height of her powers as a writer; her last novel Birdcage Walk was ambitious in conception, admirable in execution, disturbing and highly enjoyable. She was first known as a poet and was 40 when her first novel for adults was written. She had always written short stories, but published only one collection. When she knew she was dying, she suggested to her son Patrick that there might be enough unpublished or uncollected short stories to make a book. There were, and it’s a very good book too, which will be welcomed and enjoyed by her readers, for, as her son says: “The collection is Dunmore work through and through… characterised by a preoccupying interest in the individuals who otherwise may not be noted by the hands that write our shared history.”