2nd in this new series of the best British short stories, as selected by experienced and highly respected editor Nicholas Royle. There are some big name authors among his 20 chosen stories, Will Self and Jeanette Winterson to name two, but the stories were chosen simply on their merit. If you are new to short stories or are going to get only one short story collection this year then we recommend this one highly.
These stories first appeared in magazines from Ambit to Granta, in anthologies across various genres from publishers big and small, and in authors’ own short story collections. They were broadcast on radio and delivered by mobile phone app. They appeared online at Metazen and Paraxis.
“Slip this lightweight but nourishing anthology into your holiday bag. Editor Royle has selected 20 published stories from British writers. His own (excellent) taste means that little explosions of weirdness or transcendence often erupt amid much well-observed everyday life.” — Boyd Tonkin, Independent
“It’s so good that it’s hard to believe that there was no equivalent during the 17 years since Giles Gordon and David Hughes’s Best English Short Stories ceased publication in 1994. The first selection makes a very good beginning” — Kate Saunders, Times
“Let's hope this series becomes an annual fixture.” —Chris Power, The Guardian
Author
About Nicholas Royle
Nicholas Royle is the author of more than 100 short stories, two novellas and six novels. His short story collection, Mortality (Serpent’s Tail), was shortlisted for the inaugural Edge Hill Prize. He has edited fifteen anthologies of short stories, including A Book of Two Halves (Gollancz), The Time Out Book of Paris Short Stories (Penguin), ’68: New Stories by Children of the Revolution (Salt) and Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds (Two Ravens Press). A senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School at MMU, he reviews fiction for the Independent and the Warwick Review. A new novel, First Novel (Jonathan Cape), is due to appear in 2013 and a collection of short stories, London Labyrinth (No Exit Press), is forthcoming. He lives in Manchester. He also runs Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories as signed, limited-edition chapbooks.
