This new edition of An Apple from a Tree, with additional stories previously published elsewhere, provides the reader with the opportunity to revisit some of Margaret Elphinstone's early writing. Themes and motifs which have come to characterise much of her subsequent work are already evident. Her writing resonates with a deep and underlying concern with the way we understand and relate to our environment while at the same time it is always ready to challenge conventional perceptions of myth and reality. By restructuring paradigms and demonstrating the impermanence of accepted boundaries she offers insights which can be both surprising and disturbing. Her characters are frequently from elsewhere - whether the realms of folklore or far places and different cultures - and display the stranger's ability to make unexpected assumptions or ask uncomfortable questions. "...spicy, ironic, passionate, humorous, painful and witty.." Jennie Renton, Scottish Book Collector