The Black Raincoat

Brian Clarke's debut collection of sixteen short stories reflects his experiences of life. If "all the world's a stage" then his life reveals a series of plays, sometimes acted and sometimes observed. He explores familiar themes, such as young love lost, the loneliness of emigration, the loss of innocence, the tyranny of power and the struggle for acceptance. Beneath the surface of each scene often lies the hidden pain and suffering but also the courage to confront the situation. Like all theatre, alongside every tragedy sits comedy.