Right on time for Christmas gift giving comes a new work by Bermudian writer Angela Barry.

Local bookstores should have copies of 'Endangered Species and Other Stories' by the weekend.

Published by The Peepal Tree Press the book looks at the complex and emotionally charged issues and relationships arising within the lives of Bermudians, and the struggle to reconcile old values with the new social realities of the Island.

Born and raised in Bermuda, Ms Barry lived in Britain for over 20 years, first as a student then as an English teacher.

She started writing fiction in the 1980's, with her first short story, 'Anansi in Babylon', forming part of a Master's degree at Sussex University.

On her return to Bermuda, her interest in Caribbean literature deepened when she participated in a series of writing workshops taught by Barbadian novelist, George Lamming.

A recipient of the James Michener Writing Fellowship, she has had essays and stories published in journals and magazines and was on the editorial board of the Bermuda Writers' Collective which published two anthologies of short stories.

She is currently working on her first novel.

Her most recent publication will be launched on Friday and Ms Barry will conduct a free public reading of selected excerpts on December 4 at the Bermuda National Gallery from 6 -7.30 p.m..

Whether they live in Bermuda, America, London, the Gambia or the Cote d'Ivoire, Barry's fictional characters in Endangered Species and Other Stories, not only confront their individual personal conflicts, but also the ways in which the dividing differences of colour, class and colonial heritage alienate them from themselves and from each other.

Endangered Species and Other Stories has already attracted noteworthy critical praise outside of Bermuda.

Comment has been made about the author's skill in handling not only the "tensions of race and culture and the geography that pulls some of its people closer to the USA, while others look to links with the Caribbean or the even more submerged links with Africa"; but also about the strong, unifying undercurrent of identity and culture, with Africa as one of its starting points, which flows throughout the narrative.

George Lamming, internationally renowned Caribbean author of classic Caribbean fictional works such as 'In the Castle of My Skin' (1953) has said: "the work displays an astonishing virtuosity... bringing together of the multiple narratives that define the Atlantic adventure from Bermuda to Gambia/Senegal and South London is a new and audacious rendering of colonial encounters".