<P><B>Now in paperback, an authoritative collection of Alasdair Gray's stories gathered over the last 25 years, with illustrations and information to amuse the curious reader</B></P> <p>The first 16 stories in this collection were published in 1983 with the title <I>Unlikely Stories, Mostly</I>. The <I>Washington Post</I> called it "a wonder of ingenuity, a varied and rich collection in which Gray's abilities as a visual artist and illustrator are placed not only beside but within the products of his fertile imagination as a writer." The<I> Bookseller</I> said "Gray's is an extravagant imagination." This collection also has 57 tales from later books, and 16 new ones published here together for the first time. This last section, Tales Droll and Plausible, shows that Gray's recent 21st century fiction is as uncomfortably funny and up-to-date as his earliest.