Driving Short Distances

Sam is 27 and needs to get a job.

Keith, who claims to be a second cousin of his (absent) father, offers him one.

On Keith?

€™s card it says he does ?

€˜distribution and delivery?

€™, which seems to consist of ?

€˜a lot of driving around, getting out of the car for a few minutes and then getting back in?

€™, Sam tells his mother.

And so the days go by, Keith driving to a trading estate, ducking into a portakabin, all the while telling Sam stories about his first boss, Geoff Crozier, his mentor in distribution and delivery.

As the weeks pass, Sam gets to know Keith?

€™s friends, flirty Hazel-Claire from whom they buy two pasties every day at lunchtime, a variety of receptionists, and a few tantalising secrets from Keith?

€™s past?

€?

As in Days of the Bagnold Summer, Joff Winterhart is a master at depicting ordinary life in all its utterly poignant and funny mundanity.