The Elastic Book of Numbers

An anthology of original short stories which all feature numbers both in their titles and crucial to the plot and denouement.Numbers rule our lives: clocks, calendars and deadlines; salaries and benefits; tax codes and pin numbers; mortgages, bills and credit limits; the FTSE and the Dow Jones; mobiles, land lines and pagers; binary strings of digitised information held for and about us, instantly accessible.In this unique collection of 21 stories, some of the world's finest fictioneers examine the effect of numbers on humankind's past, present and future. From the rewriting of history through the thrill of the roulette wheel to the codes controlling the starships, each of these tales engages with numbers in innovative, entertaining and meaningful ways.The Elastic Book of Numbers contains fiction by: Marion Arnott, Allen Ashley, Neil Ayres, Paul Evanby, Toiya Kristen Finley, Jeff Gardiner, Kay Green, Sam Hayes, Charles Lambert, Joel Lane, Tim Lees, Phil Locascio, Rosaleen Love, John Lucas, Mark Patrick Lynch, Ellen McAteer, Joy Marchand, Tim Nickels, Donald Pulker, E. Sedia, Eric Shapiro, Julian Todd, Neil Williamson. The Anthology is edited by Allen Ashley.