Short Stories & Anthologies

A collection of very short stories by a variety of renowned authors including Ray Bradbury, Chekov, De la Mare, Dostoyevsky, Aldous Huxley, Poe, Steinbeck and Tolstoy

Aesop's fables embody truths so powerful, and are popular with both adults and children. This collection includes the individual fables of the fox and the grapes, the dog in the manger, the wolf in sheep's clothing and many others.

In each of the twelve stories in After the Funeral, small events have huge consequences. Heloise's father died in a car crash when she was a little girl; at a dinner party in her forties, she meets someone connected to that long-ago tragedy. Two estranged sisters cross paths at a posh hotel and pretend not to recognize each other.

Janie's bohemian mother plans to marry a man close to Janie's own age - everything changes when an accident interrupts the wedding party. A daughter caring for her elderly mother during the pandemic becomes obsessed with the woman next door; in the wake of his best friend's death, a man must reassess his affair with the friend's wife. Teenager Cecilia wakes one morning on vacation with her parents in Florence and sees them for the first time through disenchanted eyes. As psychologically astute as they are emotionally dense, these stories illuminate the enduring conflicts between responsibility and freedom, power and desire, convention and subversion, reality and dreams. 

For the characters in after the quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent thirty years hating one man: did her desire for revenge cause the earthquake? Miyake left his family in Kobe to make midnight bonfires on a beach hundreds of miles away.

 Fourteen-year-old Sala has nightmares that the Earthquake Man is trying to stuff her inside a little box. Katagiri returns home to find a giant frog in his apartment on a mission to save Tokyo from a massive burrowing worm. 'When he gets angry, he causes earthquakes,' says Frog. 'And right now he is very, very angry.'

A collection of 35 classic Agatha Christie stories of murder and suspense.

A collection of 23 short stories, of which 14 are previously unpublished. Witty and dark, Owens' prose shocks and delights.

Seven hilarious and surprising stories spiced with a twist in the tail

A personal selection of the author and humorist which has delighted readers for many years.

Dramatised from Alexei Sayle's hilarious, highly-acclaimed fiction, these satirical, surreal and surprising tales feature some of the UK's foremost comic actors, and are introduced by the award-winning comedian himself.

The Only Man Stalin Was Afraid Of- Summoned to treat his old friend, Stalin's psychiatrist is faced with an ethical dilemma. Starring Peter Capaldi, Freya Parker and Peter Serafinowicz.

Banner Bright - 1968. Five students meet during an art school occupation, and create an inspirational protest banner they believe will change the world. Starring Ben Crompton, George Fouracres, Kath Hughes, Tim Key and Nimisha Odedra.

The Minister for Death - A Liverpudlian pensioner foils a would-be mugger - and rekindles his lust for murder... Starring Paul Barber, Lewis MacLeod, Shaun Mason, Freya Parker and Frances Tomelty.

The Last Woman Killed In The War - Returning to Liverpool after 40 years of exile, Mary finds that much has changed during her absence. Starring Adi Alfa, Katy Carmichael, Shaun Mason, Jan Ravens and Paislie Reid.

Clive Hole - An indecisive TV commissioner comes under pressure from two dogged producers determined to get their screenplay made. Starring Katheryn Drysdale, Graham Duff, George Fouracres, Georgie Glenn, Tim McInnerny, Alice McMillan and Duncan Wisbey.

Barcelona Chairs- Frustrated architect 'rupert' embeds himself in Tony Blair's Labour government while trying to design the perfect, ultra-minimalist home for his family. Starring Ambika Mod, Hugh Quarshie and Siobhan Redmond.

The Nameless Park- Jade loves the neglected park near her house, and often takes her wheelchair-user brother for trips around its paths. But when Jason becomes critically ill, she makes a devastating discovery. Starring Louis Emerick, George Fouracres, Shaun Mason, Alice McMillan and Claire Sweeney.

Locked Out - Unexpectedly stuck outside her Central London home, Katherine realises how little she knows about her neighbours' lives, and the strange and apparently sinister things they get up to... Starring Maxine Peake.

Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives: Grandpa's work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden. As they wait together on the bench, they tell jokes and discuss their shared love of mathematics. Grandpa recalls what it was like to fall in love with his wife, what it was like to lose her. She's as real to him now as the first day he met her, but he dreads the day when he won't remember her. Sometimes Grandpa sits on the bench next to Ted, Noah's father - Ted who never liked maths, prefers writing and playing guitar, and has waited his entire life for his father to have time for him, to accept him. But in their love of Noah, they have found a common bond. Grandpa, Grandma, Ted, and Noah all meet here, in this peculiar space that is growing dimmer and more confusing all the time. And here is where they will learn to say goodbye, the scent of hyacinths in the air, nothing to fear.

Twelve original short stories in which Jeffrey Archer plays a subtle cat-and-mouse game with the reader. They end, more often than not, with collective whiskers twitching in surprise.

Stories and animals have long travelled the same routes. Through our heritage of charming, quirky and profound tales, you will find yourself re-acquainted with Britain's wondrous fauna. Find out how hedgehog ended up with spines and what makes him scuttle so fast, discover how pigs saved a prince from leprosy and why the wealthy lord was so intent on capturing the black fox. Sharon Jacksties' wonderful book combines traditional stories, little-known zoological facts and true anecdotes to create a treasure trove of stories for animal lovers of every kind.

Ten page-turning short stories from a variety of writers including Matt Haig, Andy McNab and Philippa Gregory. With stories about everything from an agoraphobic man who helps a woman who has been mugged, to a child that has survived her house being bombed in the war, there is a story for everyone to enjoy. Quick Reads.

Elderly ladies living fantasy lives, and betrayed wives wreaking revenge are just some of the characters in these entertaining short stories.

After years of living in exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia in 1994 and published a series of eight powerfully paired stories. These groundbreaking works join Solzhenitsyn's already available fiction as some of the most powerful literature of the twentieth century.

Devilish, debonair rogue, Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar, robs from within prison, leaves its walls with ease, steals priceless diamonds from the rich and outwits the greatest detective of all: Sherlock Holmes. These eight dazzling short stories display some of Lupin’s greatest thefts and escapes.

Arthur Conan Doyle is well known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote numerous works in which the great detective played no part. Included here are a selection of the best, ranging from science fiction to tales of supernatural terror and rip-roaring adventures set in Jacobean and Regency England. Our collection opens with the first of three dramas featuring the hot-tempered, larger-than-life scientist and explorer Professor Challenger. 'The Lost World' stars David Robb as Challenger, he heads on an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon Basin. Following this drama we have two further dramatisations starring Bill Paterson as Challenger this time. In 'When the World Screamed', he sets out on a bold mission to be recognised by Mother Earth, while 'The Disintegration Machine' sees him investigating dastardly Latvian inventor Theodore Nemor.

'The Captain of the Polestar' drama tells the chilling story of a ship trapped in the Arctic, and stars Alec Heggie as Craigie, a man haunted by a strange apparition. Also included are the short stories 'Playing With Fire', 'How It Happened', 'One Crowded Hour', 'The Fall of Lord Barrymore', 'The Sealed Room' and 'The Lost Special' (read by Edward de Souza, Sam Dale, Christopher Harper and David Schofield), and the fascinating series Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, in which Forbes Masson and John Dougal read extracts from his correspondence to his mother about marriage, fatherhood, killing off Holmes and going into politics. Finally, how the author ran for Parliament in 1900 and lost is explored in Bert Coules' biographical drama Vote For Conan Doyle!, starring John Sessions.

Their Gaze Was Green - With the Earth under threat from Venusian terrorists, can clean-cut space heroes Jack and Chip thwart their evil, tentacled nemeses?

And Mother Makes Millions - A dashing male stranger enters a dystopian world where human women have become infertile. Is he really humanity's saviour, or does he have a sinister agenda?

I've Got Your Number - Cal Newton goes from hero to zero when his unique, numbered ID gets copied. Can he defeat his evil alter ego, Anti-Cal, and take back his life?

Land of Plenty - In tomorrow's world, all human food is delivered in sealed mag-cans to the residents of Mars. But what if the tin-openers fail, and people are forced to eat deadly leftovers?

Unstoppable! - When the interstellar Jupiter Express hurtles out of control towards Earth, it's up to ace galactic survey explorer Biff Morrow to save the day...

Night of the Cicadas - A mad scientist has created a new breed of huge, mutant, people-eating bugs, intent on taking over the world. Could this be the end for humankind?

Short stories dealing with the position of women in America at the beginning of l9th century;

A treasure chest of timeless short stories by some of the world's greatest authors. Suspense and horror: 1 The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - Arthur Conan Doyle. 2 The Signalman - Charles Dickens. 3 Lost Hearts - MR James. 4 The Sealed Room - Arthur Conan Doyle. 5 Mrs Badgery - Wilkie Collins. 6 Wailing Well - MR James. 7 The Open Window - Saki. 8 How it happened - Arthur Conan Doyle. 9 The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe. 10 The Cone - HG Wells. 11 A Haunted House - Virginia Woolf. 12 Rats - MR James. 13 The Oval Portrait - Edgar Allan Poe. 14 Tarquin of Cheapside - F. Scott Fitzgerald. 15 One Crowded Hour - Arthur Conan Doyle. 16 The Mezzotint - MR James. 17 The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe. Love: 18 The Kiss - Kate Chopin. 19 Eleonora - Edgar Allan Poe. 20 About Love - Anton Chekhov. 21 The Lovers - Hans Christian Anderson. 22 Love - Guy De Maupassant. 23 The Sphinx Without a Secret - Oscar Wilde. 24 A Wedding Gift - Guy De Maupassant. 25 Kew Gardens - Virginia Woolf. 26 The District Doctor - Ivan Turgenev. 27 Happiness - Guy De Maupassant. 28 A Blunder - Anton Chekhov. 29 The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky - Stephen Crane. 30 In a Far-Off World - Olive Schreiner. 31 The Cook's Wedding - Anton Chekhov. 32 The Recruit - Honore de Balzac. 33 The Nightingale and the Rose - Oscar Wilde. 34 Pyramus and Thisbe - Ovid. 35 Aunt Hetty on Matrimony - Fanny Fern. 36 A Country Cottage - Anton Chekhov. 37 Marriage a la Mode - Katherine Mansfield. 38 The Statue of Limitations - Ernest Dowson. 39 The Dilettante - Edith Wharton. Humorous: 40 Tobermory - Saki. 41The Mesmeric Mountain - Stephen Crane. 42 The Children's Joke - Louisa May Alcott. 43 At The Siren - Anton Chekhov. 44 The Garden Party - Katherine Mansfield. 45 The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe. 46 The New Dress - Virginia Woolf. 47 How I Built Myself A House - Thomas Hardy. 48 The Model Millionaire - Oscar Wilde. 49 A Pair of Silk Stockings - Kate Chopin. 50 At The Barbers - Anton Chekhov. 51 A Respectable Woman - Kate Chopin. 

Folk & Fable: 52 The Happy Prince - Oscar Wilde. 53 The Elves and the Shoemaker - The Brothers Grimm. 54 The Emperor's New Clothes -Hans Christian Andersen. 55 The Tongue Cut Sparrow - Yei Theodora Ozaki. 56 Finn and the Scottish Giant - Harold F. Read. 57 The Postmaster - Rabindranath Tagore. 58 The Toys of Peace - Saki. 59 The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde. 60 The Flower Gatherer - Edward Thomas. 61 Araby - James Joyce. 62 The Interlopers - Saki. 63 Tom Thumb - The Brothers Grimm. 64 The Kabuliwalah - Rabindranath Tagore. 65 The Monkey's Paws - WW Jacobs. Christmas: 66 The Little Match Girl - Hans Christian Andersen. 67 Papa Panov's Special Christmas - Leo Tolstoy. 68 Christmas Storms and Sunshine - Elizabeth Gaskell. 69 The Gift of the Magi - O'Henry. 70 At Christmas Time - Anton Chekhov. 71 A Dill Pickle - Katherine Mansfield. Classic Tales: 72 The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 73 The Fall of Lord Barrymore - Arthur Conan Doyle. 74 The Necklace - Guy De Maupassant. 75 Holiday Group - EM Delafield. 76 Three Questions - Leo Tolstoy. 77 The Cop and the Anthem - O'Henry. 78 The Fly - Katherine Mansfield. 79 The Christening - DH Lawrence. 80 After the Race - James Joyce. 81 The String Quartet - Virginia Woolf. 82 Two Friends - Guy De Maupassant. 83 An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce. 84 A Gentleman Friend - Anthon Chekhov. 85 Ma'ame Pelagie - Kate Chopin. 86 Second Best - DH Lawrence. 87 El Verdugo - Honore de Balzac. 88 The Story of an Hour - Kate Chopin. 89 The Man of No Account - Bret Hart. 90 The Piece of String - Guy De Maupassant.

In this collection of dark, funny and bizarre short stories, Alexei Sayle's characters are vividly, wryly - and occasionally disturbingly - portrayed. Their voices, and the stories they have to tell will remain in the mind for a long, long time. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

A collection of short stories, including seven which feature Inspector Rebus, from a modern-day master of crime writing.

An anthology of short stories from the best crime writers in Britain. X rated, contains offensive language.

A collection of the best stories published in 2011 by British writers; it includes contributions from Hilary Mantel, Lee Rourke, Robert Edric, Michele Roberts and Salley Vickers, amongst others. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

An excellent collection, offering the reader a wide range of recent stories. Featuring: Elizabeth Baines, Ailsa Cox, Claire Dean, Jay Griffiths, David Grubb, Christopher Priest, Joanne Rush, Mick Scully, amongst others.

Funny and sad, atmospheric and dark, ingenious and frightening, each of the thirteen stories in this collection will thrill lovers of crime fiction.

Some of the great classic shorts stories inspired by women. This empowering selection explores the many experiences and complexities of womanhood, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad. It includes Ladies in Lavender by William J Locke, the inspiration for the film of the same name starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

Some of the great classic short stories inspired by women. This empowering selection explores the many experiences and complexities of womanhood.

This empowering selection of classic stories inspired by women explores the many experiences and complexities of womanhood. It includes Happy Women by Louisa May Alcott and The Singing Lesson by Catherine Mansfield.

A delightful collection of short stories from a master storyteller.

Pearlman writes about the predicaments odd, wry, funny and painful of being human. Her view of the world is large and compassionate, delivered through small, beautifully precise moments. Her characters inhabit terrain that all of us recognize, one defined by anxieties and longing, love and grief, loss and exultation.

Included in these twelve stories; a waiter divulges a shocking life of crime to his ex-wife; a woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy; a schoolgirl regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her; and in the title story, a middle-aged accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair.

A collection of three classic Westerns, featuring one man seeking justice, a dangerous trip in a river boat down some impossible rapids, and a love triangle....

You wake up in a strange room, with no idea how you got there...You are abroad, in a city you have never visited before...You have no money, no passport, no phone....And there is no sign of your baby....What do you do? Quick Reads.

A collection of short stories and other short-form fiction from one of the world's best-loved authors. Here are characters both familiar and undiscovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas.

The criminal impulse may be present in the most routine or intimate situation. Murder, passion, and lost innocence are all contained in these stories. Ruth Rendell probes behind the patterns of everyday life to pinpoint the frailties, desires, deceptions and guilty secrets of human beings.