The Fallen Curtain and Other Stories

A short story collection published by Hutchinson in 1976

Here are eleven tales of haunting psychological accuracy: the gesture that betrays a parent’s madness, the childhood memory clouded with denial and the utterance that introduces the threat of violence in a situation as benign as a dinner date.

Instantly engaging and maddeningly addictive, The Fallen Curtain testifies to the enduring talents of a master of the genre.

Notes

• Contains: “The Fallen Curtain”, “People Don’t Do Such Things”, “A Bad Heart, You Can’t Be Too Careful”, “The Double”, “The Venus Fly Trap”, “The Clinging Woman”, “The Vinegar Mother”, “The Fall of a Coin”, “Almost Human” and “Divided We Stand”.

• The title story won the MWA Edgar Award for Best Short Story of the Year in 1975.

• Six stories from The Fallen Curtain read by David Ashford on BBC Radio 4 in 1977.

• “The Double”, “You Can’t Be Too Careful”, and “The Fallen Curtain” were adapted for TV in 1997 and 1999.

• Behind the scenes on the 2012 BBC Radio recording of People Don’t Do Such Things.

• The Ruth Rendell BBC Radio Drama Collection.

Contemporary Reads ¹

• Anne Rice - Interview With The Vampire

• Richard Yates - The Easter Parade

• Christopher Isherwood - Christopher and His Kind

• Bob Woodward - Final Days

• Muriel Spark - The Takeover

• Colin Dexter - Last Seen Wearing

Footnotes

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