This collection of short stories showcases author Michael Joll's versatility as a writer. From the very short – Father, Son and Holy Ghost and The Wedding Dress – to near-novella length – Frenchie – they cover a wide range of plots, characters and places.

The author weaves his backgrounds and plots with imagination, creating memorable characters in relatable, realistic situations. Of the twenty stories, three in Canada and four in Britain. Of the thirteen others, he takes the reader to New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Afghanistan, the tribal territories of northwest Pakistan, India, Mexico, the United States and the Western Front in the First World War.

The title story, Outside the Wire, recounts the story of a Canadian army patrol in Afghanistan led by a young officer who doubts his suitability to command infantrymen. Partly based on a true story of a British army patrol and its explosive-sniffer English Springer Spaniel.

In The Wedding Dress, the mother of a thirty-something single Indian woman living in London talks her daughter into returning to Mumbai to find a suitable husband. The reluctant bride-to-be heaps scorn on the wedding dress rented for the occasion, symbolizing the impermanence of the prospective relationship.

La Iguana is a story of a middle-aged New York couple whose marriage is on the rocks. In a last-ditch attempt to save their marriage, they take a holiday in Puerto Vallarta – in July, where the temperature is hotter than Mercury, and the humidity is like a jungle. The restaurant La Iguana, is rife with possibilities for the marriage to end there.

The Son and Heir is a story of love that turns tragic one winter's morning in rural Suffolk, England, in 1904.Letters From The Portuguese recounts the efforts of an English professor at Oxford University who tries to buy the letters of the poet Elizabeth Barrett to her lover, Robert Browning, at auction in New York. With his tenure about to expire, the professor attempts to resurrect a mediocre career with a statement gesture by presenting the letters to 'a grateful nation' as a final gift.

Frenchie is the longest of the stories. The battle for Ortona on Italy's Adriatic Coast over Christmas 1943 was among the most savage of the war. The author does not hold back, taken in part from eyewitness accounts, but is able to show the humanity and brutality suffered by both sides. The story's two main characters, Lance Corporal Frenchie Duclos, a veteran of the First World War, and his new Bren gun ammunition carrier, Private Larry Holt, the rookie, make an unlikely couple, constantly sniping at each other in a love/hate relationship born of necessity. Black humour underlies a grudging mutual trust.

The Inside of a Ping Pong Ball, a short, semi-autobiographical account of a boy's painful first year at an English boarding school in the 1950s. Told with self-deprecating humour, the joke's on him.

Pigtails is also set in the 1950s, a bittersweet story of childhood sweethearts in New Zealand lost as young adults when each goes off to university. A Long Way from Wolverhampton takes the reader to a youth classical music festival in Switzerland, where gauche Shree Gosine, a violist full of self-doubt, meets nerdy Czech oboe player Marcus at the opening night reception. Finding a common language is not their only hurdle.

A dog features prominently in A Nose for Trouble when a retired couple adopts a Springer Spaniel from an animal shelter. There is a good reason why Turbo landed in the shelter, as Bill and Genevieve discover. It goes downhill from there as Turbo uncovers the delights of Dolce and Gabbana sandals, crispy dead carp fish, goose droppings and the tile bed of the septic system on a long weekend.

Specificaties