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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title= TrickeryThe Accidentals|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=How underhand could you be to get what you want? In these ten tales This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of dark the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out to deceive others - charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and, sometimes, even ourselveshuman relationships. Here, among others, you'll read of the married couple Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and the parting gift which rocks their marriageprecisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the light fingered hitch-hiker and the grateful motorist, and discover why the serious poacher keeps a few sleeping pills in his arsenalworld.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933232</amazonuk>1804271470

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlMariana Enriquez|title= InnocenceA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=What makes us innocent and how do we come to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahl's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayedMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, Dahl touches achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on the joys and horrors gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of growing up. Among other storiesdisused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, you'll read about the wager that destroys an overcrowded homeless shelter and a girl's faith in crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her father, the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest and characters are so plausible that the commuter who is horrified to discover that supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a fellow passenger once bullied him at schoolsimilarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tania HershmanFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersWhite Nights|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 a bounty of ideas and characters As always in short order can be too muchDostoyevsky, but do you have the right to pick and choose according to character work is sublime. One is never left wondering what appeals, a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions 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 I read one of this author's collections, temperaments 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 a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sectionsremarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James KelmanAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=That Was a Shiver, All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Other StoriesStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Short Stories Science Fiction|summary=This is ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the ninth book shape of short stories by this author, which means hethings to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's presented just as many collections of the short form as he has novelsre eighteen. You will find it hard to think of another author Well, I must confess that has there have been so noted for longer works (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 [[How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman|How Late It Was, How Late]] winning the Booker) but who feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is so generous in presenting shorter pieces for the time-poorfrankly - quite frightening. Of course, or those like me I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who see the variety in a writerknows what they's short re talking about or less typical works to be the more interesting places to turnlatest conspiracy theorist. Opening these pages, from the pen of such an esteemed pro, came with no small sense of anticipationI needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786890909</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various AuthorsB0CDZRGT1M|title= A Change Is Gonna ComeSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= ''A Change Is Gonna ComeGot a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?'''' These 100 stories are super short. None is an anthology 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 stories and poems interpreting 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 theme flash fictions in a book of change them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by twelve BAME writers. Itexplaining that there really isn's Stripes Publishing's response to the under-representation t a fixed definition of BAME authors in the UKflash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. And itThat's about a great responsesingle page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847158390</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Helen StanceyRachel Harrison|title= The Madonna of the PoolBad Dolls|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=3.54

|summary=We here at The Bookbag liked this authorIt's fairly recent collection of short stories, [[Vertigo by Joanna Walsh|Vertigo]]been some time since I've read any horror. I myself missed out, but that seemed to be vignettes from one character's narration – here we get homosexual male narrators and had a host morecouple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, as well as much less of borrowing the sadness prevalent before. Having had books from a brief encounter boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with this author courtesy of her entry into them to the [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne|Object Lessons]] series, point that I was intrigued by her name being stamped on a selection couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of shorts. Was it the ideal calling card? vampires outside! LetDon's face it, the very t worry - this short story itself can be a postcard – letcollection isn't like that! It doesn's sayt have those jump scares, from a specific hotel or twoand I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, as we see here. Perhaps and I should have geared myself upfound most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories about women, howeverliving normal lives, for such intricate writing on said postcards – and for that at least in part, the exotic locations horrors arises from which they came…very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911508105</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen PhillipsB0CCCVRSGX|title=Some Possible SolutionsStories 2|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=Picture a world where you, a new mother, move to a town where you slowly start to realise that every other woman seems a replica This is Richard F Walker's second volume of you – dressing short stories. There are thirteen in all and doing as you doI took something from each of them. Consider There isn't a place where you have a perfect other half – most literally – but itsingle one that doesn's only t deserve to be found on an alien planetamong the others or brings down the overall quality. Or how about the woman who suddenly finds she It can see everything and everyone else alive as having no skin, just organs, tissue and bone as if everyone was having a Gunther von Hagens plastination job? A lot of these be tricky to review short stories are hard to summarise without dropping into the voice of the ''Twilight Zone'' narrationgiving too much away, but theyso I're not specifically genre works – ll just pick two to talk about and I think they're just further examples of this author's unsettling look at the bizarre elements of lifegive a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273425</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cixin Liu1739593901|title= 22 Ideas About The Wandering EarthFuture|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as a form had been relegated to the pages of women's magazines (no disrespect) – think again'Our future will be more complex than we expected. One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter and encourager Instead of the short form is Sciflying cars, we got night-fivision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma. So when you pick up '' I've got a collection couple of Sci-fi shorts, you know that confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it will have just as much depth easy to read a few stories and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novelthen forget to return to the book. Add to that the intrigue of seeing how the concepts are approached by someone from China which – There's got to be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in many ways very compelling hook to much of keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the rest of technology which takes centre stage along with the planet…and add to that an author world-building. It's human beings who is not only a best-seller in his home country but has fascinate me: the technology and the distinction world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of having produced the first translated work a book of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fleur Jaeggy and Gini Alhadeff (translator)B09XZMCDVF|title= I Am The Brother Of XXStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 4|genre= Short Stories|summary=''I Am The Brother of XX'' A news vendor is a collection crying out the headlines in the middle of twenty one short stories from Fleur Jaeggy, who expertly wields malevolence and spite throughout, from the evil done between husband and wife night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in ''The Aviary'', his imagination; a nasty tale of Oedipal menace and vicious, although admittedly, artful cruelty, stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to senseless annihilation and immolation in ''The Heir''. Jaeggy also appears correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a particular fascination lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with religionhis feet, from the nun receiving a rather special sort of communion in and awfully familiar…''The Visitor'' to general references  This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the Church and religious devotion throughout many of her storieseclectic reader. Family Tying them together is also a recurrent theme; whether focused on the distance between siblings in the titular storyidea that remarkable and strange, even miraculous, told from the point of view of a brother filled with longing and loneliness trying things can happen to create a bond with his distant older sister, ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or the primal need to protect the bond between mother uninteresting. Form and son, regardless tone varies so this little treasury of the cost in ''Adelaideshort fiction is never boring and you're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911508024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malcolm Devlin1737030942|title= You Will Grow Into ThemBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating= 54|genre= Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's 'You Will Grow Into Them'Bag O' is Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a thrilling collection year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a rollicking tale of ten short stories all centred on the nature of transition and changewhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. The often grisly Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, macabre so I turned to this anthology of verse and ghoulish nature of the short stories included in Devlin. Bittick's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit writing has matured - and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictiveso have his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tove Jansson1529418100|title= Letters From KlaraBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating= 54|genre= Literary FictionShort Stories|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the Moomin family, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning book down between stories and forget to gather pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks temptation to publishers read ''Bruno'Sort of bookss Challenge'' was hard to resist and Thomas Teal, who has been responsible for most of the translationsI'm rather glad that I didn't even try. Receiving this one, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem For those new to have missed one of the series, and secondly there'll come a time sooner rather than later when theres an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who'll be no more s who and the background to be had. The former will be rectified, the latter why Bruno is a sad thoughtin St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lee ChildB08NF79QXT|title= No Middle NameCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 43|genre= Crime Women's Fiction|summary= There is a theoryThirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribethe Cherry Blossom Boutique, which says that the short storyfor just six months when she's heyday has passed nominated for - and it has now put itself out to grasswins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. This is particularly true, some say, She's delighted and I have been known the two people she's brought with her to concur, of the crime and thriller genresevent couldn't be more pleased. Tosh! I can only apologise to all authors involved Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and own upBrazilian: I simply havenyou can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica't been paying attention. Not even to shorter offerings my by favourite authors. So: big thanks to Lee Child s thirty-four and publishers Bantam Press for putting me straight with Liberty's best friend: they'No Middle Nameve known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica'' : a collection of short stories about my favourite latters husband, Charles and their four-day, Americanyear-styleold daughter, Robin Hood by the name of ''Jack Reacher'Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=A Fanfare of TalesBut Never For Lunch|author=Patrick C ReidySandra Aragona

|summary=I love short stories''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.'' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, so Ido you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador'm always happy when a new collection arrives s Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the Priorities]] and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for reviewSandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador. .. They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled'A Fanfare rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of Talesslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Capturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=He' s Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Patrick C Reidy promises me 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 compilation little deeper. Charles is more of short stories a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that highlight the adventures Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challengeshis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. 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?}}{{Frontpage|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4. I like 5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this premise, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of marrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. So how does Which is why the theme of this book shape up? of short stories is such a standout – 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>1524665983</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia RomeroStibbe_Xmas|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=34.5|genre=Graphic Novels Humour|summary=Out Christmas – the time of ninety-five diverse comic strip stories, traditional trauma. You only have to think about the publication of this book leaves just turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the last three yet downstairs loo to be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacksdefrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. So if Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves can go and her great crime-solving mindvisit 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 lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with her Willie, this is all the last-butthank-one chance for you letters to do so. And if aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you have any interest write out in quick little action tales, or even dated kitschlong-hand as a child, and as for both apply herethe makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Edwards (editor)0954899520|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)A Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Consider Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming and runs to a house on a particular streetMoomin books, number 13, from where written in the noise is emanating. When he peeps through 1940s and later becoming television characters of the letterbox he discovers a dead man in the hallway with a knife in his throatsimplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. He goes to fetch helpSimple drawings, but upon returningsimple stories, finds simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that the street does not have she was a number 13 and serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the body natural world and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanished.simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Michael R Lane1911115847|title= UFOs and GOD: A Collection Nights of Short Storiesthe Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating= 4|genre= Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=From stories ''Nights of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by the arrival of aliens, author Michael R Lane has compiled Creaking Bed'' is a collection of fascinating and clever short stories hereby Toni Kan. From farm to urban, from World War II to The series of stories tell of the Digital Agelives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, the places and timesNigeria. Nigeria, people and events in ''UFOs and God'' spotlight the tender underbelly this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the human condition in all its glory shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and despair on passion that allows these varied stages cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of fictionhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rick Bass1529014484|title= For a Little WhileExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 45|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=''For a Little While'' is a collection of Over the past twenty-five eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories from Rick Bass, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. As someone previously unacquainted with BassIf you haven' work t then take this new collection was a wonderful introduction opportunity to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiencesdo so now. 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 takenTrust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->Frontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=A Collection of Short StoriesWatchwords |author=Gillian Fletcher-EdwardsPhilip Neal

|summary=Marged Evans allowed This satisfying collection of short stories has a break-up with provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had been told was like a lover 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to affect everything in her lifecollect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a watch collector. Osian wanted An eBay purchase led him to invest the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the present but Marged loved repairer of watches was not and the pastseed of an idea for a book was born. Since they drifted apart}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=Return to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, Margedwhen the first book she was in [[Alice's life has been carefulAdventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], orderedI found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, unadventurousand I don't remember loving it more as a child. But then Osian sends her I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a Christmas card and everything changestangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author'Marged Evanss output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises – I' is the first and longest in this collection of short stories from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. Itd more likely go for Bree Tanner's almost a short novella and its initially slow pace sets off quite than the masterclass whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaos.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sybil Marshall and John Lawrence1846974658|title= The Book of English Folk TalesLong Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating= 4|genre= AnthologiesShort Stories|summary= From ghosts On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to witchesend up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, to giants and fairieswhile I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'The Book of English Folk Taleslocal'' is a fascinating collection of stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall– the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. Out of print for over three decades If I ever get to Burma, this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence and is sure I won't need to capture the attention of a new generation of lovers of folklorehunt, I 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 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's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'I only know about parent death and sluttinessgoody two shoes'in Hell). Although a strong person, she tells us's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. She goes on Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, juvenile detention and I think it is no exaggeration refused permission to say that these are the underlying themes return to practically all of the stories herelive with Marsha.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Simon Van Booy|title= Tales of Accidental Genius|rating= 5|genre= Short Stories|summary=A diverse Then, haunting and humorous collection of short fictioncourse, Simon Van Booy offers a collection there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. With characters ranging from an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, all - subverted to the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician and a Beijing street vendor, devil's evil ends. He'Tales of Accidental Genius'' takes the reader s out to prey on many, incredible journeys, their fears and conveys more in a few pages than many authors would struggle to do in a whole novel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Amnesty International|title= Here I Stand|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together a number of great authors weaknesses and produces an anthology of writing. This time, they've done it for younger readers with ''Here I Stand''. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are as with human rights in today's society: the sacrifices many made to win them; the sacrifices that still need to be made to spread them; howfoster children, where and why these rights are under attack and how deep their self-esteem is the need to defend themvery fragile. |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 This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a treasure trove of language, culturestraining complex on earth, and beautifully written prose. The stories are bound together complete with a loose theme of communication, or miscommunication, across characters and cultures, and the narrators of these stories are as different as human beings themselvesan elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>