Penelope Lively is one of the queens of short fiction. Another book gone missing: Nothing Missing but the Samovar. She does good memorable titles too. So in lieu of the Samovar, which is indeed missing, a more recent collection, and Licenced to Kill. I’m fairly sure I heard this on the radio before reading it. It starts as a rumination on old age as Pauline and her carer Cally fumble their way out of the house and through the shopping run, until Pauline, in Marks & Spencer, casually reveals that she was once a spy. The story pivots as she remembers places she’s been and people she has killed, and Cally decides that perhaps, her planned career in hospitality isn’t for her after all.

First published in The Purple Swamp Hen, Penguin, 2017