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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Tania HershmanBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|titlesummary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of Us Glow More Than Othersit is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch

|genre=Short Stories |summary=I won't 'Got a minute to be alone amused, entertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in stating that reading a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short story collections can be slightly awkward. Going through from A-Z, witnessing '' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a bounty flavour of ideas and characters a fully rounded little story if that story is told in short order can be too much, but fewer than three hundred words? Or do you have try to draw out themes from all the right to pick and choose according to what appeals, and what time you have to fillflash fictions in a book of them? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear to be the case here. The last time I read one don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, authorMark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's collections, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]], the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing them, but here you not only get about a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sectionssingle page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James KelmanRachel Harrison|title=That Was a Shiver, and Other StoriesBad Dolls|rating=3.54|genre=Short Stories |summary=This is the ninth book of short stories by this author, which means heIt's presented just as many collections of the short form as he has novelsbeen some time since I've read any horror. You will find it hard to think I had a couple of another author that has been so noted for longer works (what misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with [[How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman|How Late It Was, How Late]] winning them to the Booker) but who is so generous in presenting shorter pieces point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the timevampires outside! Don't worry -poorthis short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, or those like me who see the variety in a writerand I didn's short or less typical works t have to be read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the more interesting places to turn. Opening fact that these pagesare stories about women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, the horrors arises from the pen of very normal situations such an esteemed proas a breakup, trying a new dieting app, came going to a hen party and a coping with no small sense of anticipationgrief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786890909</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various AuthorsB0CCCVRSGX|title= A Change Is Gonna ComeStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= This is Richard F Walker''A Change Is Gonna Come'' is an anthology s second volume of short stories . There are thirteen in all and poems interpreting the theme I took something from each of change by twelve BAME writersthem. ItThere isn's Stripes Publishingt a single one that doesn's response t deserve to be among the under-representation of BAME authors in others or brings down the UKoverall quality. And itIt can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I's ll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a great responsegeneral flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Stancey1739593901|title= 22 Ideas About The Madonna of the PoolFuture|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 3.5|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary= In most short story collections''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, an overarching theme is usually present in each we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the narratives which help each story gently flow in book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to the nextkeep me engaged. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the quiet disappointments, achievements, and complications that each of us experience through everyday lifeworld-building. She draws attention to It's human beings who fascinate me: the small events technology and decisions that can both disrupt and significantly alter the lives world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of others and ourselvesa book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughoutI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanna WalshB09XZMCDVF|title=Worlds from the Word's EndStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this author's fairly recent 'A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and awfully familiar…'' This collection of thirteen short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader. I myself missed outTying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, but things can happen to ordinary people. And that seemed to be vignettes from one characterordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators coming next.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1737030942|title=Bag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=4|genre= Anthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and a host more, as well as much less of the sadness prevalent beforemine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. Having had I first encountered his writing about a brief encounter with this author courtesy of her entry into the year ago, when I read his [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) Cape Henry House by Lydia PyneJolly Walker Bittick|Object LessonsCape Henry House]] series, I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection rollicking tale of shortswhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Was it the ideal calling card? Let's face itRight now, the very short story itself can be a postcard – letI didn's say, from t want a specific hotel or twofull-length novel, as we see hereso I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate Bittick's writing on said postcards – has matured - and for the exotic locations from which they came…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>so have his characters. Well... most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Phillips1529418100|title=Some Possible SolutionsBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker

|summary=Picture I'm not usually a world where you, a new mother, move fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to a town where you slowly start put the book down between stories and forget to realise that every other woman seems pick it up again - but I am a replica fan of you – dressing and doing as you do. Consider a place where you have a perfect other half – most literally – but itMartin Walker's [[Martin Walker's only Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to be found on an alien planet. Or how about the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue and bone as if everyone read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot of these stories are hard to summarise without dropping into the voice of the resist and I'm rather glad that I didn'Twilight Zone'' narrationt even try. For those new to the series, but theythere're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples of this authors an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's unsettling look at who and the bizarre elements of lifebackground to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin LiuB08NF79QXT|title= The Wandering EarthCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Science Women's Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as a form Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had been relegated to her shop, the pages of womenCherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's magazines (no disrespect) – think againnominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter She's delighted and encourager of the short form two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is Scian ex-fimodel and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. So when you pick up a collection of SciJessica's thirty-fi shortsfour and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, you know that it will have just as much depth Charles and thoughttheir four-provoking philosophy as any similar novelyear-old daughter, Ava. Add to that the intrigue of seeing how the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to Life would be polite – has perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a somewhat different world-view man in many ways to much of the rest of the planet…and add to that an author who is not only a best-seller in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>her life.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)B08KKQ85FN|title= I Am The Brother Of XXBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''I Am The Brother of XX'' is If a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughout, from woman approaching the evil done between husband and wife menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in ''The Aviary''lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a nasty tale pampered peacock about to be released into the company of Oedipal menace and viciouscarrion crows or, although admittedly, artful crueltymore to the point, about to senseless annihilation discover the real world of bus timetables and immolation in paying his own gas bills.''The Heir You don''. Jaeggy also appears to have a particular fascination with religiont get many better opening sentences than that, from the nun receiving a rather special sort of communion in ''do you? We first met His Excellency and The VisitorAmbassador'' to general references to s Wife in [[Sorting the Church Priorities: Ambassadress and religious devotion throughout many of her stories. Family is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the distance between siblings in the titular story, told from the point of view of a brother filled with longing Priorities]] and loneliness trying we learned what it was like to create a bond with his distant older sister, or be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the primal need time has come for HE to protect the bond between mother retires and son, regardless for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of the cost Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'Adelaide''rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malcolm DevlinB08CHJLNBS|title= You Will Grow Into ThemCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She'You Will Grow Into Thems Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else' s philosophies, to something a little deeper. Charles is more of a thrilling collection of ten short stories [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all centred on the nature of transition and change, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. The often grisly They're obviously not at all compatible, macabre and ghoulish nature so why can Charles not get this woman out of the stories included in Devlinhis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictiveobvious to his friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk> And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Tove JanssonMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= Letters From KlaraCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionFantasy|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation of the Moomin family, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writingsCurses. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers They''Sort re there throughout tales of books'' faery and Thomas Tealother fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, who has been responsible for most of the translationsor not to be able to do that. Receiving this oneChildren can be cursed, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one as can princesses on the verge of the seriesmarrying, and secondly there'll come older people too. It seems in a time sooner rather than later when way there'll be s no more to be hadescaping it. The former will be rectified, Which is why the latter theme of this book of short stories is such a sad thoughtstandout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lee ChildStibbe_Xmas|title= No Middle NameAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime Humour|summary= There is Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a theory, time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribedefrost overnight, which says and if that failed the short storyhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's heyday has passed all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it has now put itself out , and get too friendly with it to want to grasseat it. This is particularly trueChristmas, some say, and I have been known to concurthough, is of course also a time of the crime and thriller genresgreat boons. Tosh! I It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can only apologise to all authors involved hire red suits and own up: I simply haven't been paying attention. Not even to shorter offerings my by favourite authors. So: big thanks to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press beards, it was always a godsend for putting me straight postmen with ''No Middle Name'' : all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a collection of short stories about my favourite latterdecade that your parents made you write out in long-dayhand as a child, American-styleand as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, Robin Hood by did they even try and sell them any other time of the name of ''Jack Reacher''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=A Fanfare Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1911115847|title=Nights of Talesthe Creaking Bed|author=Patrick C ReidyToni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=I love short stories, so I'm always happy when a new collection arrives for review. ''A Fanfare Nights of Tales'' by Patrick C Reidy promises me the Creaking Bed''is a compilation collection of short stories that highlight by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the adventures lives and lusts of an assortment of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challenges''living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. I like Nigeria, in this premisecollection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. So how does Danger stalks the book shape up? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero1529014484|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic Novels Science Fiction|summary=Out of ninetyOver the past twenty-five diverse comic strip eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, the publication of this book leaves just the last three yet to be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacks. So magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves and her great crime-solving mind, and are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of course with her Willie, this is the last-but-one chance for work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do sonow. And if you have any interest in quick little action tales, or even dated kitsch, for both apply here, then you should eagerly Trust me; your imagination will be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>grateful.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)1794467440|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)Watchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating= 54|genre= CrimeShort Stories|summary=Consider This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the following scenario: provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a policeman hears someone screaming watch he was fond of and runs to had been told was like a house on a particular street1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, number 13, from where the noise is emanatinghe began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. When he peeps through the letterbox And that's how he discovers became a dead man in watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the hallway with a knife Antique Watch Company watch repairers in his throatClerkenwell. He goes to fetch helpThe eBay purchase was a fake, but upon returning, finds the friendship that grew between the street does not have a number 13 buyer and that the body repairer of watches was not and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanishedseed of an idea for a book was born...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Michael R Lane1529006031|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection of Short StoriesReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=From stories of In following a young people caught up in girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a Robin Hood style operation gone wrongfew years ago, to a believer when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in God having her faith shaken Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the arrival -sake-of aliens-it did not gel, author Michael R Lane has compiled and I don't remember loving it more as a collection of fascinating and clever child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories herethat come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. From farm I've always preferred coming to urbanan author's output through their least obvious, from World War II to the Digital Ageallegedly throw-away pieces, the places and times, people and events in it's the same with franchises – I'UFOs and Godd more likely go for Bree Tanner'' spotlight s short novella than the tender underbelly whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of the human condition greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rick Bass1846974658|title= For a Little While|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''For a Little While'' is a collection of twenty-five short stories from Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted with Bass' work this new collection was a wonderful introduction to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiences. The characters in each tale are beautifully crafted and the stories are dreamy, loose narratives covering everything from love to death to choices made and chances taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>}}{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->|title=A Collection of Short StoriesLong Path To Wisdom|author=Gillian FletcherJan-EdwardsPhilipp Sendker

|summary=Marged Evans allowed On my travels around the world, I have a break-tendency to end up with a lover to affect everything in her life. Osian wanted to invest in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the present but Marged loved next person, what I'm really looking for is the past. Since they drifted apart, Marged's life has been carefullocal' – the cookbook maybe, orderedthe maps definitely, unadventurous. But then Osian sends her a Christmas card and everything changes. ''Marged Evans'' is but above all: the first and longest in this collection of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwardsfolk tales. It If I ever get to Burma, I won's almost a novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite the masterclass in how one event t need to hunt, I can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaosread before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sybil Marshall and John LawrenceB077969HN8|title= The Book of English Folk Tales|rating= 4|genre= Anthologies|summary= From ghosts to witches, to giants and fairies, ''The Book of English Folk Tales'' is a fascinating collection of stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall. Out of print for over three decades, this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure to capture the attention of a new generation of lovers of folklore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAlternative Medicine|author=Shirley McKay|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Laura Solomon

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=A lot of crime happens Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen toosurrealism''. As we travel through I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of either, but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too'' black and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of his most interesting casesreality when you were least expecting it. In fact there's one Your comfort zones are going to match each of be invaded in the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yulenicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=9386897504|title=Mary Telford Tales of Love and Louise VerityDisability|titleauthor=SinsLaura Solomon

|summary=Is there enough new to say about the seven deadly sins? WeI've seen them all shown to us, from school age always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and up talent to write a short story which holds the movie ''Se7en'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown to anyone at school agereader and keeps them coming back for more. We can each recount them There are far too many collections of short stories which are all, having been long familiar with them, even if we probably cantoo easy to put down and forget after you't pin down when they were actually set in stone without helpve read a couple of pieces. Similarly, is there anything new in the world I've recently read a couple of fairy tale? We know the tropes novellas by Laura Solomon - characters identified [[Marsha's Deal by their status or gender (the woman, the husband), a clear set of rules to obey, Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, the formulae involved. Well, this volume demands we decide the answer to those questions as being positive ones, and if it[[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's not always definitive in the writing here that there is something newUnveiling]] and enjoyed them, rest assured there will be something in the imagery that will definitely strike one as freshso I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and others1986586898|title=How Much the Heart Can HoldGoing To The Last: Seven Short Stories on LoveAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight|rating=34.5

|summary=This Sceptre collection does In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not have to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the story of Foinavon. H is depicted as simple a remit as it might appear; these are kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a no straightforward love stories-hoper. Instead, they each take In one aspect of love – often one the most dramatic runnings of the ancient Greek classifications – and provide race, a whole new way of thinking about itpile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. After all Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the heart holds a lot race at odds of metaphorical weight100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Simpson9386897296|title=CockfostersHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=This was a belated reunion for me, having been introduced to the author's snappy short story collections courtesy the very first one A little while at uni. Mind, it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts this book – Julie and Philippa have had a shop-bought curry together, but have had to forsake a cultural chat for a trip haring along the London Underground chasing after a pair of glasses one of them left behind. The piece is definitely about the subject of ageing – about time passed and what might be remaining ahead – but you soon discover that not only do all the pieces here have titles that are unadorned place names, but they all concern that very theme. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Beckler|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refuge|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= ''The Road More Travelled'' is an anthology of short stories - and one poem - written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015. To the horror of the authors, the language used by many was aggressive and dehumanising, describing this mass of desperate people as a swarm or a horde. The stories together form a response to this othering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Ransom Riggs|title= Tales of the Peculiar|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy who can control the currents of the sea. Cannibals who feast on the limbs of a village of peculiars. These are just a few of the brilliant stories to be found in ''Tales of the Peculiar'', all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world - a place familiar to many of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in ago I really enjoyed [[Miss PeregrineMarsha's Home for Peculiar Children Deal by Ransom RiggsLaura Solomon|Miss PeregrineMarsha's Home for Peculiar ChildrenDeal]]. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way, and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each of the tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=I'll Be Home For Christmas|author=Benjamin Zephaniah and Others|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Publisher Little Tiger and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''I'll Be Home For Christmas'' - an anthology of short stories from some of the most popular writers on the UK YA scene. The stories are connected was delighted by the theme of home. What does home mean opportunity to you? Is it your house, read the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different peoplesequel, can't it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favourite, Benjamin Zephaniah. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales of hardship and fear, some warming the cockles of your heart. But all of them are about 'Hell'homes Unveiling''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rebecca Schiff|title= The Bed Moved|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories |summary= Rebecca Schiff It's collection probably not much of short stories was a revelation. It has everything I want from a collection: humour, (often of spoiler to say that Marsha bested the black variety), heartbreaking sadness, and moments of shocking clarity. These stories feel like the revealing of the inner workings of a young American womandevil in 's psyche. In fact, in the last short piece, entitled 'Marsha'Write What You Knows Deal'', it feels that but the narrator/author devil is telling us the experiences which have led not one to this collectiontake defeat lying down. He''I only know about parent death s out to wage war on Planet Earth and sluttiness', she tells us. She goes particularly on to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people Marsha (who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all 's thought of the stories here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Simon Van Booy|title= Tales of Accidental Genius|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=A diverse, haunting and humorous collection of short fiction, Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician and as a Beijing street vendor, ''Tales of Accidental Genius'goody two shoes' takes the reader on many, incredible journeys, and conveys more in a few pages than many authors would struggle to do in a whole novelHell). |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Amnesty International|title= Here I Stand|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together Although a number of great authors and produces an anthology of writing. This timestrong person, they've done it for younger readers with ''Here I Stand''. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights in todayshe's society: the sacrifices many made to win them; the sacrifices that still need to be made to spread them; how, vulnerable where and why these rights her foster children are under attack and how deep is the need to defend themconcerned. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anna Metcalfe|title= Blind Water Pass and other stories|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary= Anna Metcalfe's debut collection of short stories Daniel is framed for a treasure trove of language, cultures, crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and beautifully written proserefused permission to return to live with Marsha. The stories are bound together with a loose theme Then, of communicationcourse, or miscommunication, across characters and cultures, and there are all the narrators other children who are not only targeted but - worst of these stories are as different as human beings themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Wendy Brandmark|title= He Runs the Moon|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories |summary= This is all - subverted to the first time I had read any of Wendy Brandmarkdevil's fiction, and I was intrigued at the theme of the storiesevil ends. She sets He's out writing short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge to prey on their fears and weaknesses and Bostonas with many foster children, but also weaves in setting the stories in different erastheir self-esteem is very fragile. So we have This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a collection of stories ranging from the 1950's training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to the 1970'sHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>