Screwtop Thompson, Booker Prize-shortlisted author Magnus Mills' third collection of short stories,[1] brings together ten short tales that "trundle gently between the ordinary, absurd and the outright surreal.

"[2] Mills writes short stories described as "solid, crafted from deceptively simple sentences and concerning simple characters trying to achieve simple goals, which makes their sudden flights of fancy all the more unexpected.

"[3] The first eight stories are taken from his earlier collections, Only When the Sun Shines Brightly and Once in a Blue Moon published in 1999 and 2003 respectively.

As in his novels, all the stories are told by an unnamed narrator :