Who but Professor Bernice Summerfield, interstellar archaeologist, raconteur, boozer and wit, would get other people to write her autobiography albeit under threat of death from two bounty hunters sent by a publisher far too concerned about little things like deadlines?

These stories are an ideal introduction to the life of Bernice Summerfield: falling off cliffs, getting sacrificed to orange pygmies, saving the universe and trying to buy a new frock. Cliffhanging escapes! Adventure on distant planets! Scones for tea!

The Doomsday Manuscript: The key to finding the Lost Tomb of Rablev. Legend says that if the tomb is ever opened, the world will end.

The Braxiatel Collection: Home to Professor Bernice Summerfield, and the location of one half of the Doomsday Manuscript.

The Fifth Axis: A callous, aggressive force that is assimilating territory and acquiring art treasures and archaeological finds.

Kasagrad: The last neutral planet in the Assimilated Territories, strategically vital and protected from the Fifth Axis by its inpenetrable defence systems.

With the party to celebrate the opening of the Braxiatel Collection and the new year still underway, Benny finds herself drawn into a web of mystery and intrigue that starts with death and gets more serious at every stage. Can she find the second half of the Doomsday Manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands? Can she trust her partner in the quest? What will she find on Kasagrad - the location of the Lost Tomb of Rablev?

And can she squeeze in another drink at "Joseppi's" - favourite haunt of black marketeers, spies, counterfeiters, Fifth Axis officers, and desperate archaeologists - before the end of the world?

There's a whisper going round that the long-lost temple of the Argian Gods of the Underworld has finally been discovered on the planet Venedel. There's a still quieter whisper that deep inside it lies the Argian Oracle, an ancient artefact that can pinpoint the whereabouts of any soul in the universe. Benny Summerfield sets out to see if the whispers are true ­— and to see if it can tell her the whereabouts of her missing lover. She's got nothing to lose.

Reaching Venedel, Benny finds it under siege from an over-zealous Federation, alleging human rights atrocities and starving the planet out until its people capitulate to its terms. Despite this, a team of Nishtubi mercenaries are running the blockade to supply aid for the Venedelans. But why? They have nothing to gain.

Caught between jingoistic natives, Nishtubi heavies, a plague of ancient killers and the cold, undying secrets of the Gods of the Underworld, Benny and her allies have nowhere to run — and are left facing nothing but trouble.

Legend tells of an evil sorceress who used the power of magical crystals to transfer her mind into the bodies of others. Her reign of terror was long and bloody, and her final defeat the cause of great rejoicing.

But that's just a legend. A story told to children. Isn't it? I mean, it's ridiculous. It couldn't have really happened could it?

Finding the last resting place of the Crystal Sorceress is an archaeological dream on a par with discovering the Holy Grail. So it's hardly likely that someone will just offer the solution to Professor Bernice Summerfield on a plate.

But sometimes the unlikely actually happens. And one thing that's very, very unlikely is that Benny will suddenly find herself to be a member of the opposite gender!

Acting on an abstruse tip-off from the reknowned paraphysiologist Dr. Rupert Gilhooly (a man who, like, knows a lot of stuff) one Bernice Summerfield has found herself on a probe-ship heading deep into the Problematic Heart of the galaxy - not knowing what, or quite who, she might find.

What she finds is Station Control. A place that exists, simultaniously, in four hundred and seventeen dimensions, a brawling, souk-like Nexus between every world that can, or has or ever will be. And one of those dimensions is Hell.

Bernice knows nothing of the rivalries and power-plays going on here. So she blunders right into them and makes a complete hash of everything, natch. And one of the particular whoms she finds, quite frankly, what with one thing and another, she could quite well do without. In her current state.

Don't ever annoy the Fifth Axis. They might throw you into the Glass Prison on Deirbhile­ and then throw away the key.

Once you're inside, there's nowhere to hide. They can see your every movement. They control you. You're going to be watched for the rest of your life, wherever you go, whoever you are. Even if you're a professor of archaeology. Even if you're a friend of the famous Irving Braxiatel, and you've written several popular coffee-table books.

Even if you're pregnant. Even if your baby's due any day now.

But, of course, they know all about your baby. And they're planning to take it away.

That is, unless the loony cultists you're locked up with don't get it first.

A new collection of short stories published to coincide with Benny's tenth anniversary. Each story is set at a different period during Professor Bernice Summerfield's highly eventful life.