Elizabeth Bowen’s stories explore childhood memories, the natural world, love, loss and the occult. Place is as significant as character and her writing is noted for its sharpness of observation. Both World Wars inspired many of her best short stories. From The Demon Lover, we learn what it was like to live in London during the blitz. In Joining Charles, the story of a young, unhappy wife: ‘A ghost from the future stood out from the looking glass.’ In Daffodils, we learn of the loneliness of a middle aged schoolmistress. Through readings and discussion, we will consider how Bowen accommodates the demands of the short story together with a world of dreams, fantasy and the unfamiliar.