These are eight short stories - only one is over 3000 words. They are set in present day, or recent, Cornwall, and this setting is important to them. The landscape, history and way of life that is part of the county of Cornwall provides not only the background color but underlies and shapes some of the attitudes and resulting actions or the people in the stones. Various characters are drawn with distinct personalities and the author attempts, hopefully with insight and a light touch of irony, to explore the relationships and interactions between the people who appear in the tales. They are called 'tales' because they are, in some cases, stories told to an interested listener. I have made almost no attempt to reproduce dialect when characters might be therefore annoying if I come across it. Those who know a bit about Cornwell will have no trouble hearing the accent in their own heads, when, say, an old countryman is meant to be talking. The place names in many cases are invented but the different geographical areas, different moorland, the china clay country, the far West, will I hope ring true to those familiarity with the county. Some of my tales are about relationships between the sexes, but I wouldn't call them romances. There is a ghost or two, but they are not ghost stories. Some have happy endings and at least one has a tragic one, mostly, as in most of our lives, the characters comprise to some extent and wrest happiness form a less then perfect set of circumstances. If you want to know more, you'll just have to read them! I hope they please you.