To enter into the surreal world of Gerry King and his Lubin Tales is to penetrate a colourful wonderland of absurd and intriguing people and places.  King is also known as Dr Zero Lubin, “cyber flâneur and trained observer of the spectacle”. The universe he creates in this entertaining pocket-sized book of micro-fictions is reminiscent of the charm of curio shops and the garish colours of Martin Parr’s photographs.

Lubin Tales is a collection of richly illustrated fascinating tales which is part bedside book, part cult classic and entirely though-provoking. Whether you read the stories aloud “in a celebratory fashion” as King suggests, choose just one anecdote to peruse with bedtime cocoa, or curl up in an armchair and devour the compendium in one – it’s a book which will transport you to another world.

Each story has an intriguing title that piques the reader’s curiosity. “You were weird at school” relates the particulars of Simon, a school friend who offers King an unusual holiday souvenir: a piece of concrete from the Nuremberg stadium. As with many of the other personages in Lubin Tales, Simon is both endearing and destablising; King relates how his domestic cleanliness was a little below par as his mother was incapacitated due to a debilitating illness and his father was “in gaol for swimming pool fraud”.

The lipstick-stained cigarette ends described in “Poodle Faker” could be a metaphor for the heavy scent of nostalgia present in Lubin Tales; of memories of a quaint and once-glorious Britain. The stories are punctuated with references to a bygone era of silk flowers, caravan holidays, attaché cases and Austin Sevens. There’s a dark, yet playful humour about Lubin Tales; this is a world populated by dubious characters. The “Stealerant” wouldn’t be out of place in the noirish films of the 1940s and the “Poodle Faker” is simultaneously unnerving and charming; evoking references to Poliakoff, Leigh and Lynch. Although the tales are quite short, King’s strength as a writer shines through in his prose which conjures up characters, situations and places in an almost cinematic fashion. The Bachelor Bicylette Brothers, Flexible Phyllis and Baby La Strange are all delightfully dark personages to discover in King’s microcosm of “small town debauchery”.

Once you have read Lubin Tales, you will almost certainly spot glimpses of King’s micro-fictions in the world around you. This is a book which you will read and want to reread – it would be a perfect gift for anyone with an unorthodox imagination, an irreverent sense of humour and an interest in “intercontinental dubious intent”.

Lubin Tales by Gerry King is available to buy online here.

A collection of cards has also been produced by Zero Lubin each with a mini-micro anecdote extracted from Lubin Tales. If you’d like to tell a loved one that “You were weird at school and your house is filthy”, they are available to purchase on the Zero Lubin website.