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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''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 it 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|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of them? I 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, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in your average paperback.}}{{Frontpage|author=Kenneth StevenRachel Harrison|title=Winter TalesBad Dolls

|summary= Upon opening this book you are presented with an eclectic collection of twelve short stories centred around It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a common theme couple of Winter. You are taken around misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the world as you read stories set in books from a variety boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of places from Helsinki the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn't have to New Yorkread it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, Germany to Russia. Kenneth Steven cleverly utilises a key component and I found most of short that feeling came from the fact that these are stories - about women, living normal lives, and that you can read each story at least in one sitting - to his advantage as he gives each story an individual focal subjectpart, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as bullyinga breakup, trying a new dieting app, ensuring that you are reading going to a hen party and a distinct story every time you open the bookcoping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910674508</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlB0CCCVRSGX|title= FearStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spine-chilling This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories chosen by Roald Dahl, these terrible tales . There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of ghostly goings-on will have you shivering with fear as you turn them. There isn't a single one that doesn't deserve to be among the others or brings down the pagesoverall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933216</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald Dahl1739593901|title= War22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=In war''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring 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 autobiographical stories from Roald Dahlbook. There's time as got to be a fighter pilot in very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the Second World War as well as seven other tales of conflict technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and strifethe world scape are purely incidental. So, Dahl reveals the human side what did I think of a book of our most inhumane activitytwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933194</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlB09XZMCDVF|title= TrickeryStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 54|genre= Short Stories|summary=How underhand could you be to get what you want? In these ten tales ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of dark and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals that we are at our smartest and most cunning the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when we set out 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 deceive others - have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, and, sometimes, even ourselves. Here, among others, youawfully familiar…''ll read  This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the married couple eclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and the parting gift which rocks their marriagestrange, even miraculous, the light fingered hitch-hiker things can happen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. Form and the grateful motorist, tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and discover why the serious poacher keeps a few sleeping pills in his arsenalyou're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933232</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald Dahl1737030942|title= InnocenceBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating= 54|genre= Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=What makes us innocent Sometimes, you deserve a treat and how do we come to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahlmine was Jolly Walker Bittick's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayed''Bag O'Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], Dahl touches on the joys and horrors a rollicking tale of growing upwhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Among other stories Right now, youI didn'll read about the wager that destroys t want a girlfull-length novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and short stories. Bittick's faith in her father, the landlady who writing has plans for her unsuspecting young guest matured - and the commuter who is horrified to discover that a fellow passenger once bullied him at schoolso have his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania Hershman1529418100|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories |summary=I won't be alone in stating that reading short story collections can be slightly awkward. Going through from A-Z, witnessing m not usually a bounty fan of ideas and characters in short order can be stories - I find it all too much, but do you have easy to put the right book down between stories and forget to pick and choose according to what appeals, and what time you have to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear to be the case here. The last time it up again - but I read one am a fan of this authorMartin Walker's collections, with [[The White Road by Tania HershmanMartin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|The White RoadBruno Courreges Mysteries]], so the only real difficulty temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was holding back hard to resist and rationing themI'm rather glad that I didn't even try. For those new to the series, but here there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you not only get a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sectionsneed to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James KelmanB08NF79QXT|title=That Was a Shiver, and Other StoriesCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories Women's Fiction|summary=This is Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the ninth book of short stories by this authorCherry Blossom Boutique, which means hefor just six months when she's presented just as many collections of nominated for - and wins - the short form as he has novelsRetail Best Newcomer Award. You will find it hard to think of another author that has been so noted for longer works (what with [[How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman|How Late It Was, How Late]] winning the Booker) but who is so generous in presenting shorter pieces for the time-poor, or those like me who see She's delighted and the variety in a writertwo people she's short or less typical works brought with her to the event couldn't be the more interesting places to turnpleased. Opening these pagesSonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from the pen of such an esteemed pro. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, came with no small sense of anticipationAva. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786890909</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various AuthorsB08KKQ85FN|title= A Change Is Gonna Come|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= ''A Change Is Gonna Come'' is an anthology of stories and poems interpreting the theme of change by twelve BAME writers. It's Stripes Publishing's response to the under-representation of BAME authors in the UK. And it's a great response.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBut Never For Lunch|author= Helen Stancey|title= The Madonna of the Pool|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories|summary= In most short story collections, an overarching theme is usually present in each of the narratives which help each story gently flow in to the next. In this debut collection Helen Stancey explores the quiet disappointments, achievements, and complications that each of us experience through everyday life. She draws attention to the small events and decisions that can both disrupt and significantly alter the lives of others and ourselves, all while maintaining a delicately poetic tone throughout.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1912054000</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Joanna Walsh|title=Worlds from the Word's End|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this author's fairly recent collection of short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]. I myself missed out, but that seemed to be vignettes from one character's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators and a host more, as well as much less of the sadness prevalent before. Having had a brief encounter with this author courtesy of her entry into the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection of shorts. Was it the ideal calling card? Let's face it, the very short story itself can be a postcard – let's say, from a specific hotel or two, as we see here. Perhaps I should have geared myself up, however, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for the exotic locations from which they came…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Helen Phillips|title=Some Possible SolutionsSandra Aragona

|summary=Picture ''If a world where youwoman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a new motherpampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, move more to a town where you slowly start the point, about to realise that every other woman seems a replica discover the real world of you – dressing bus timetables and doing as paying his own gas bills.'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you do. ? Consider a place where you have a perfect other half – most literally – but itWe first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's only to be found on an alien planet. Or how about Wife in [[Sorting the woman who suddenly finds she can see everything Priorities: Ambassadress and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and bone as if everyone we learned what it was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot of these stories are hard like to summarise without dropping into be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the voice time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of the Former Ambassador... They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'Twilight Zone'' narrationrather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, but they're not specifically genre works – they're just further examples has no intention of this author's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of lifeslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin LiuB08CHJLNBS|title= The Wandering EarthCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Science Women's Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as a form had been relegated to the pages of womenHe's magazines (no disrespect) – think again. One genre that has always been Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a stalwart supporter and encourager of partner at Wickham Jones, the short form is Sci-fiMayfair letting agents. So when you pick up a collection of SciShe's Emilia, twenty-fi shortsnine, you know that it will have just as much depth librarian and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novelarchivist in the heritage library next door. Add to that the intrigue of seeing how the concepts are approached Emilia has read [[The Secret by someone Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from China new age books like that, which – leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to be polite – has something a somewhat different world-view in many ways to much little deeper. Charles is more of the rest a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of the planet…and add his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that an author who is not only Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a bestnon-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>starter, isn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Fleur Jaeggy Marie O'Regan and Gini Alhadeff Paul Kane (translatoreditors)|title= I Am The Brother Of XXCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesFantasy|summary=Curses. They''I Am The Brother of XX'' is a collection of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence and spite re there throughout, from the evil done between husband and wife in ''The Aviary'', a nasty tale tales of Oedipal menace faery and vicious, although admittedly, artful crueltyother fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to senseless annihilation and immolation in ''The Heir''do that. Jaeggy also appears to have a particular fascination with religionChildren can be cursed, from as can princesses on the nun receiving a rather special sort verge of communion marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there''The Visitor'' to general references to the Church and religious devotion throughout many of her storiess no escaping it. Family Which is also a recurrent why the theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings in the titular story, told from the point of view this book of short stories is such a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying standout – we may well think we know all there is to create a bond with his distant older sisterknow about this accursed character, that demonised place, or the primal need to protect the bond between mother and son, regardless of the cost in ''Adelaide'that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malcolm DevlinStibbe_Xmas|title= You Will Grow Into ThemAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary=''Christmas – the time of traditional trauma. You Will Grow Into Themonly have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it' s suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a thrilling collection lot of ten short stories plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all centred on the nature thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of transition and change. The often grislyMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, macabre did they even try and ghoulish nature sell them any other time of the stories included in Devlinyear?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=A Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Tove Jansson's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the darkness within each tale 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 deviously addictivethat 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tove Jansson1911115847|title= Letters From KlaraNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating= 54|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation ''Nights of the Moomin family, Jansson Creaking Bed'' is rather belatedly beginning to gather a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers ''Sort lives and lusts of an assortment of books'' characters living in and Thomas Tealaround Lagos, who has been responsible for most of the translationsNigeria. Receiving Nigeria, in this onecollection, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the series, shadows and secondly there'll come people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to be had. The former will be rectified, the latter is achieve a sad thoughtglimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lee Child1529014484|title= No Middle NameExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 45|genre= Crime Science Fiction|summary= There is a theoryOver the past twenty-eight years, to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribeTed Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, which says that the short story's heyday has passed and these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it has now put itself out to grass. This is particularly true, likely that you have already come across some say, and I have been known to concur, of the crime and thriller genreswork by Ted Chiang. Tosh! I can only apologise to all authors involved and own up: I simply If you haven't been paying attention. Not even then take this opportunity to shorter offerings my by favourite authorsdo so now. So: big thanks to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press for putting Trust me straight with ''No Middle Name'' : a collection of short stories about my favourite latter-day, American-style, Robin Hood by the name of ''Jack Reacher''; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=A Fanfare of TalesWatchwords |author=Patrick C ReidyPhilip Neal

|summary=I love This satisfying collection of short stories, so I'm always happy when has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a new collection arrives for reviewwatch. ''A Fanfare It was a watch he was fond of Tales'' by Patrick C Reidy promises me ''and had been told was like a compilation 1930s Cartier. Instead of short stories mourning its loss, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that highlight the adventures of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challenges''s how he became a watch collector. I like this premiseAn eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. So how does The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book shape up? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>was born.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero1529006031|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=34.5|genre=Graphic Novels Short Stories|summary=Out of ninety-five diverse comic strip storiesIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the publication of this first book leaves just the last three yet to be presented she was in [[Alice's Adventures in these fabulous large format paperbacksWonderland (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. So if you haven’t yet met with The wacky-for-the sassy brunette with her curves and her great crime-solving mind, and sake-of course with her Willie, this is the last-but-one chance for you to do so. And if you have any interest in quick little action tales, or even dated kitsch, for both apply hereit did not gel, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Martin Edwards (editor)|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)|rating= 5|genre= Crime|summary=Consider the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming and runs to I don't remember loving it more as a house on a particular street, number 13, from where the noise is emanatingchild. When he peeps through But I would suggest I am the letterbox he discovers a dead man in the hallway with a knife in his throatperfect audience for this book. He goes I had every chance to fetch help, but upon returning, finds enjoy these short stories that come at the street does not have core from a number 13 and tangent, that show the body and benefits of the room he saw have both mysteriously vanishedoblique glance...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Michael R Lane|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection of Short Stories|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=From stories of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, I've always preferred coming to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival of aliens, an author Michael R Lane has compiled a collection of fascinating and clever short stories here. From farm to urban'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 of the human condition in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fictionwhole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rick Bass|title= For a Little While|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''For a Little While'' is a collection another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of twenty-five short stories from Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted greatness here – with Bass' work this new collection was a wonderful introduction to his quirkyCarroll much loved by millions, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiences. The characters surely pieces written with that love 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>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->Frontpage|isbn=1846974658|title=A Collection of Short StoriesThe Long 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 the present but Marged loved any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the past. Since they drifted apartnext person, Margedwhat I's life has been careful, ordered, unadventurous. But then Osian sends her a Christmas card and everything changes. ''Marged Evansm really looking for is the 'local' is – the first and longest in this collection of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. It's almost a novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite cookbook maybe, the masterclass in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - maps definitely, but lovely - chaosabove all: the folk tales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sybil Marshall and John Lawrence|title= The Book of English Folk Tales|rating= 4|genre= Anthologies|summary= From ghosts If I ever get to witchesBurma, I won't need to giants and fairieshunt, ''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 folkloreI can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKayB077969HN8|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)Alternative Medicine|author=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 A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was a belated reunion for me, having been introduced delighted by the opportunity to read the authorsequel, ''Hell's snappy short story collections courtesy the very first one while at uniUnveiling''. Mind, it was a It's probably not much more gentle and placid reunion than the one that starts this book – Julie and Philippa have had of a shop-bought curry together, but have had spoiler 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 say that not only do all Marsha bested 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= devil in ''Marsha'The Road More Travelleds Deal'' , but the devil is an anthology of short stories - and not one poem - written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015take defeat lying down. To the horror of the authors, the language used by many was aggressive He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and dehumanising, describing this mass particularly on Marsha (who's thought 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 'goody two shoes'Tales of the Peculiar'', all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world in Hell). - Although a place familiar to many of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in [[Miss Peregrinestrong person, she's Home vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs|Miss Peregrinea crime he didn's Home for Peculiar Children]]. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history t commit and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way, sent to juvenile detention and also include some beautiful illustrations refused permission 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 by the theme of home. What does home mean return to you? Is it your house, the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different people, 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 ''home''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rebecca Schiff|title= The Bed Moved|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories |summary= Rebecca Schiff's collection of short stories was a revelationMarsha. It has everything I want from a collection: humourThen, (often of the black variety)course, heartbreaking sadness, and moments of shocking clarity. These stories feel like there are all the revealing other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the inner workings of a young American womandevil's psycheevil ends. In fact, in the last short piece, entitled He''Write What You Know'', it feels that the narrator/author is telling us the experiences which have led s out to this collection. ''I only know about parent death prey on their fears and weaknesses and sluttiness'as with many foster children, she tells ustheir self-esteem is very fragile. She goes on to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, and I think it This is no exaggeration to say that these are small-scale operation, either - the underlying themes devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to practically all of the stories hereHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>