A classic collection of 20 short stories, the core of which is formed by Alan Paton's famous first volume of short stories Debbie Go Home (1961), published in the US as Tales from a Troubled Land. The rest of the stories are taken from other sources,10 of them from Paton's last volume, Knocking on the Door (1975). The collection is prefaced by Paton's lively interview of himself. Paton himself provides the best description of the collection when he says: '... you must put your story first, not your politics or religion or your anger ... they inform the story and give it colour and warmth and fire. But they must never usurp the place of the prime motive, which is to tell a story.' 'The Hero of Currie Road', the last story in the collection, was read publicly by Paton in 1970 in Johannesburg and first published in 1972.