**'These are some of the wildest, arresting, just plain brilliant short stories I've read in a long time.' - Roddy Doyle, author of *The Woman Who Walked Into Doors After a Dance* is a collection of short stories from acclaimed writer Bridget O'Connor, with an exclusive preface from the author's daughter, Constance Straughan.** Bridget O'Connor was one of the great short story writers of her generation. She had a voice that was viscerally funny and an eye for both the glaring reality and the absurdity of the everyday. In After A Dance, we meet a selection of O'Connor's most memorable characters often living on the margin of their own lives: from the anonymous thief set on an unusual prize to the hungover best man clinging to what he's lost, to the unrepentant gold-digger who always comes out on top. From unravelling narcissists to melancholy romantics all human life is here - at its best and at its delightful worst. 'Think Irvine Welsh meets Edna O’Brien . . . pure, delicious naughty fun' – The Times