Bold move, to say the least, for Eley Williams to give her latest short-story collection that name. For the sarcastic reviewer, this is practically an open goal, the critical equivalent of pulverising low-hanging fruit. That instinct will be resisted here, albeit alongside an admission that the title is, actually, sadly, reasonably accurate.

There’s no denying the craft, wit and wisdom at play across 19 short stories (at just under 200 pages, this amounts to a set of very short stories), and Williams’ status as one of Granta’s Best Of Young Novelists from their 2023 list is wholly justified. But after completing story 19, while the reader will have received plenty of nourishment for the mind, their heart might remain untouched with barely a single emotion elicited. There are stories about an exam-stressed schoolboy dreaming of a fantastical zoo; a man and a balloon appearing uninvited in a garden; a businesswoman inexplicably locked out of her office building. All of them are carved gently and embossed with a flourish of words that will occasionally have you dashing for a nearby dictionary.

To the uninitiated, that title is a reference to the BBC’s Shipping Forecast and, in a neat meta twist, this eponymous work was read by Williams on Radio 4 in 2022. It’s always tempting to read a lot into a ‘title track’, and ‘Moderate To Poor, Occasionally Good’ is narrated by a forecaster who breaks with tradition by locking themselves in the studio to tell some unfortunate truths about their personal life. It’s unclear whether Williams has ever done this. With such obvious talents at the author’s disposal, it’s to be anticipated that at some point not too far down the line, Eley Williams will call a book Absolute Literary Bangers All The Way. 

Eley Williams: Moderate To Poor, Occasionally Good is published by Fourth Estate on Thursday 18 July; Eley Williams appears at Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday 24 August, 5pm.