The purple swamp hen -- Abroad -- The row -- Who do you think you were? -- Old as the hills -- A biography -- The weekend -- Licence to kill -- Mrs Bennet -- Lorna and Tom -- Point of View -- DIY -- The bridge -- Theory of mind -- The third wife.

A dream house that is hiding something sinister; two women having lunch who share a husband; an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess; a couple who don't know each other at all even after fifteen years together; and, in the story from which this collection takes its name, a bird and a servant girl in ancient Pompeii who cannot converse, but share a perfect understanding. In this new and varied collection of short stories, Penelope Lively shows that she remains a master of her craft, and one of our finest English writers.