The territory explored in this book lies between the collaborative stories that patients work out over time with their psychotherapists and the finished performance with which an accomplished story-teller can hold an audience in the pub or in front of the family fire, reconstructing events and characters in a gripping and continuous narrative. It is about the kinds of stories we all tell in conversation, often without being aware that we are engaged in story-telling - stories fuelled by a need to convey information, to express