This volume brings together the stories and poems from When the Bough Breaks, published in 1924, and Black Sparta, published in 1928.
They are: A Sophist in love; 'A wood near Athens'; Arrow-struck; Babes in the wood; Black Sparta; Charilas, in exile, remembers Sparta; Coming into the bay; Cottia went to Bibracte; Got to put up with it now; Krypteia; O Lucky Thessaly!; Peace; Philisté's weaving song; Plutarch, in a letter to his brother Lamprias; Professor Whitehead and the poets; Pythian XI; Song; Sophrosyne Castle; Take back your bay wreath; The child Jason is brought to Chiron; The Chosen-by-lot; The epiphany of Poieëssa; The exiled oligarchs are driven out of the city; The heart and the head; The highbrow; The Hostages; The lamb misused; The Man from Alesia; The story of Myrto; The Triumph of Faith; Things without remedy; When the Bough Breaks; 'Who will you have for nuts in May?; Wise Diotima.

Naomi Mitchison [1897-1999] was a literary phenomenon.
Tireless in her writing, unafraid and often highly unconventional in her opinions, she left an extraordinary legacy.
Her novels for adults and children - based on the classical ancient world, and on the immediately contemporary - stressed at different times her deep interest in Scottish and African societies, as well her concerns for the future.
She also wrote poetry and plays, memoirs, a war diary, book reviews, political articles, and many letters.