The instant number one bestseller from the legendary Margaret Atwood

My heart is broken, Nell thinks. But in our family we don’t say, ‘My heart is broken.’ We say, ‘Are there any cookies?’

In this dazzling collection of stories we meet beloved cats, George Orwell, a daughter whose mother may or may not be a witch, a cabal of elderly female academics, and an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales. And we meet and re-meet Nell and Tig, a long-married couple, and see the moments big and small that make up a life of love – and what comes after.


'She's Margaret Atwood, and she can do anything' Ann Patchett

'There is no greater living writer' Daily Telegraph

'The outstanding novelist of our age' Sunday Times

'A living legend' New York Times Book Review

"Vitality and virtuosity have been the hallmarks of Atwoods literary career - and, as Old Babes in the Wood, published in her 84th year, shows, triumphantly continue to be so... Mortality shadows the book. Vivacity makes it shine" - Sunday Times

"If you consider yourself and Atwood fan and have only read her novels: Get your act together. You've been missing out" - New York Times Book Review

"Atwood shows mastery of the short form . . . [The] stories unwrap what TS Eliot called the gifts reserved for age. There are chips and fragments of lives, full of sass and sadness" - Guardian

"A gripping read... Old Babes in the Wood is further evidence of a writer in full possession of her powers. Atwood will never struggle to find readers, but this collection really is worth their attention" - Financial Times

"Atwood... is a brilliant and spiky storyteller who can seamlessly turn big issues into page-turners... These are Atwood's most personal tales so far" - Sunday Times