Kafka's bad dream

In the UK, the corner shop performs much the same function as the Kiwi dairy: it's where you buy basics like bread and milk until you visit a supermarket or more dedicated establishment. In many places, these corner shops also double as sub-post offices, charged with selling stamps, dispensing pensions and a multitude of other state-related issues.

- Andrew Anthony

These franchises are often run by husband-and-wife teams who tend to form strong links with the local community.

Before the turn of the century, something strange began to happen in many of Britain's 19,000 sub-post offices: large sums of money appeared to go missing. These glaring financial discrepancies coincided with the installation of a new IT system, Horizon.

The sub-postmasters and mistresses diligently reported the unprecedented anomalies in their accounting, believing they were technical glitches that the Post Office would sort out. Instead, in a move that Kafka would have deemed unbelievable, the Post Office insisted the Horizon system was perfectly fine and the problem was due to a sudden upsurge in theft. It promptly launched private prosecutions against the very people who had reported the problem: the sub-postmasters and mistresses.