'With photographic precision, author Susan Midalia captures the fleeting beauty, light and darkness to be found in the ephemera of everyday life. From the silences between people and the ordinariness of places, objects and events, she conjures narrative jewels of intelligence and grace. A History of the Beanbag is a short story collection with a difference - a scenic tour of the surprises secrets and fears beneath the cracked veneer of domesticity and suburban complacency.' (Publisher's blurb)