In Camera and Other Stories (1992) by Robert Westall

Five late—I assume—tales, all novellas. Each is a rewarding example of plain straightforward storytelling: craftsmanship it only takes an artist decades to cultivate.

"𝐈𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐚" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)

That Saturday morning, Phil and I'd been up the Portobello Market and Phil had acquired yet another camera. A 1930s Zeiss Ikon. He had three Zeiss Ikons already, but you know what collectors are. But what had really turned him on was that this Zeiss had a roll of exposed film still inside it. A random slice of somebody else's life, Phil called it, and vanished into his precious darkroom to develop it, leaving me to finish getting dinner ready, because John and Melanie were coming. Ambitious cook, Phil. Always does the main dishes, soaking them overnight in wine or oil, till you can't tell whether you're eating beef or lamb. But he's not keen on doing all the fiddly bits....

Chums deduce the photographer when they develop troubling photos from a camera purchase d at a flea market.

"𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐳𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐛" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)

Mrs Parsons, Polborough's senior registrar, does the paperwork for a young mother's slightly greenish newborn.

'Is the baby a girl or a boy?' The woman just smiled. The smile came from deep inside her like water slowly oozing up round your feet when you stand in a wet field. As if there was some huge joke that Mrs Parsons would never, never be told. 'Oh, come, my good woman, you must know!'

'Oh, he'm male all right. Just like his father afore him, and haven't I got cause to know it! But cold as clay his father was, in the dark o' night.' Her slow smile invited questions now.

Mrs Parsons said 'Male' briskly, and wrote it down....

'𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)

A blind man leads the sighted to save a young woman. All from his armchair.

"𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐫" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)

A young woman finds her independence and is heated in avoiding inappropriate suitors by Siamese cat. Charming, historical, and very touching.

"𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡" (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐)

"Henry Marlborough" is an unalloyed masterpiece of supernatural melodrama.

Zillah Salisbury finds communion with the titular historical figure's three-century-old grave marker in her town cemetery. She believes that she is making a supernatural connection with his spirit, using it to fortify herself against the social pressure of parents and suitors to conform, conform, conform.

Zillah builds a room of her own, populated with items of furniture and art from Henry's time. She also finds a growing career as a local antiquarian journalist and ultimately a hugely popular historical novelist. All these steps toward her independence and maturity Zilla believes are cemented by Henry. The cost to Zilla is a falling away of her family and her first husband, all of whom she stares down when they attempt to drag her back into the trap of proprieties for her class and gender.

It's a brilliant story, one that is worth the price of the book.

𝘐𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢 is very much worth seeking out.