'Lottie and Kezia stood on the patch of lawn just inside the gate, all ready for the fray in their coats with brass anchor buttons....' In the realm of the short story, Katherine Mansfield established a highly original style. Undramatic, poetic, and lyrical, her writing is exquisitely subtle in its treatment of human behaviour. When these 14 short stories were published in 1920, she had already effected a transformation in this form of fiction, and her influence has been deeply felt by subsequent writers.