TOUCHY SUBJECTS

(Virago, £9.99)

Think of an embarrassing topic of conversation. The chances are that Emma Donoghue has already written about it in this squirm-making collection of short stories, Touchy Subjects (Virago, £9.99). She writes disarmingly frankly - and always amusingly - about the most intimate situations, and the tangles that people get themselves into.

Complications leading from misunderstandings, the discomfort of social stigmas, feuds that arise from family differences of opinion - all are grist to Donoghue's energetically grinding mill of embarrassment.

The spectrum of embarrassment is wide, and she makes full use of this. There's the chap who has been commissioned' by his wife to provide a sperm sample for her best friend. Little did any of them know how difficult the whole thing would be - and then only to have the container knocked over on the carpet.

And there's the woman whom a kindly gentleman mistakes for being pregnant. She doesn't disabuse him of this, but then finds herself having to act out a phantom pregnancy as she keeps bumping into him.

Then there's the childless couple, whose dogs are their life. They are invited to the family Christmas without their "babies" - whereas, of course, the human grandchildren are included. How can they possibly be expected to put the dogs into kennels at Christmas, of all times?

Animals are ripe material for Donoghue. Another story sets the price of veterinary care against the price of love, with humans definitely losing out in the comparison. "Love me, love my cat" is as nothing compared with the conflicting priorities of a couple of lesbians.

Donoghue can even make the choosing of paint amusing. Well, Leroy and Shorelle had always wanted a slate blue house, so it was important to get it right. No matter the trouble for the painter, because paint when it is actually painted always looks different from the way it looks on those swatches. Ho, hum.

There's bound to be at least one situation here that rings a bell, something that sounds distressingly familiar. But while you squirm at these tales, it's hard not to be amused, since that humour is often the best antidote to embarassment.