The Short Hello is a spirited first collection of stories from writer, actor, and ex-stand-up comedian Susie Maguire. We encounter seven-year-old Mickey on the road in Northeastern America, the twenty-something Glaswegian Marina McLoughlin in "The Day I Met Sean Connery" and "Barry Norman´s Tie," the lesser-spotted Scottish single male who likes to cook, menopausal Holly stuck in Debenhams, Pig and Anna in Tangiers, a yellow sofa that prohibits an electric but impossible relationship, and the intrepid accountant-detective of the London comedy scene, Mr. Arnold Brown. A specialist in odd-angled observation, Susie Maguire deftly handles changes in mood and moment. Her astringent, comic voice delves beneath the clichés and euphemisms of people´s everyday conversations to make for a sharp and entertaining collection.
