Knowing French (Storycuts)

Sylvia Winstanley, the youngest and most competent resident in a home for the elderly and self-labelled maverick, begins a written correspondence with the author of Flaubert''s Parrot. We are treated to one half of the confused and hilarious dialogue between the two. Sylvia''s bout of ''epistolomania'' offers a charming perspective on growing old, and the associated difficulty of continuing to look forward rather than back.

Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection The Lemon Table.