An anthology of four short stories centered around the topic of honestly--or dishonestly--winning the pools in postwar Britain.

A win on the football pools in postwar Britain changes lives. A happy family is turned into an unhappy argumentative lot until it is discovered that the coupon apparently never get posted. A mild-mannered clerk worries about how to tell his overbearing boss he is quitting. A double-bass player finds that life without the orchestra lacks something. The lure of big money even turns some people into criminals, such as when a coupon checker is tempted by his nightclub-singer girlfriend to cheat the company.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}