The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its seventh year.Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover – or more accurately, by its title. This critically acclaimed series aims to reprint the best short stories published in the previous calendar year by British writers, whether based in the UK or elsewhere. The editor's brief is wide ranging, covering anthologies, collections, magazines, newspapers and web sites, looking...

Another brilliant collection of erotic short stories from Cosmopolitan, the world's best-selling magazine for young women.. In volume 2, you'll meet the woman unsure she can handle her new man's racy fantasies, the girl hoping her salsa teacher is into really dirty dancing, the detective taking surveillance to a whole new level, the shy shop manager having dirty thoughts about her tube-ride crush, and the city girl who's working very hard to please her demanding boss.

Charles Arrowby has determined to spend the rest of his days in hermit-like contemplation.He buys a mysteriously damp house on the coast, far from the heady world of the theatre where he made his name, and there he swims in the sea, eats revolting meals and writes his memoirs. But then he meets his childhood sweetheart Hartley, and memories of her lovely, younger self crowd in – along with more recent lovers and friends – to disrupt his self-imposed exile. So inste...

‘Read at night, with the lights low, in one sitting’ ObserverA triumph of contemporary horror from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author, this collection of short stories will haunt you long after you turn the final page.A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations – yet it has a magnetis...

'Weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling... Dive in for just a moment and you'll emerge gasping and haunted' Celeste Ng, bestselling author of Little Fires EverywhereIt's been sixteen years since Gretel last saw her mother, half a lifetime to forget her childhood on the canals. But a phone call will soon reunite them, and bring those wild years flooding back: the secret language that Gretel and her mother invented; the strange boy, Marcus, living on the ...

A hypnotic and haunting story of longing and survival, losing yourself and finding your family'Daisy Johnson's best novel... a multi-generational story of secrets, obsessions, and love' Jeff VanderMeer'Will endure with readers long after they have closed its pages' GuardianClose to the shore is the island: uninhabited, wild, with only a storm-beaten lighthouse for shelter. Ori was found there as a small child with a handful ...

This lost coming-of-age classic is a tragicomic portrait of one young woman's university breakdown and recovery for fans of The Bell Jar and Girl, Interrupted.'More relevant than ever.' Daisy Johnson (in a new foreword)'It took my breath away.' Meg Mason'A magnificent literary experience.' Melissa Broder'Enthralling and necessary.' Claire Kilroy'Radiant and powerful.'

Revisit the haunting debut short story collection from the Booker-shortlisted author of Everything Under.'Full of unabashedly, refreshingly angry women... In a year that made me furious, Daisy Johnson’s Fen was a howl I didn’t know I needed' Celeste NgThe Fen is a liminal land. Real people live their lives here. They wrestle with sex and desire, with everyday routine. But the wild is always close at hand, ready to erupt.

*Now a major film SEPTEMBER SAYS*The electrifying novel from the Booker shortlisted author of Everything Under.'A short sharp explosion of a gothic thriller' ObserverSomething unspeakable has happened to sisters July and September.Desperate for a fresh start, they move across the country to an old family house that has a troubled life of its own. Noises come from behind the walls. Lights fl...

What is it to pursue a goal, to strive for an ideal, to follow a dream?These are the questions explored by The Balvenie in this unique collection compiled by award-winning novelist Alex Preston. The stories – from some of the brightest and most exciting voices writing today – tell of determination, endeavour and perseverance against the odds. They range across wildly different contexts and cultures, from the epic to the intimate, in fiction and non-fiction, illustrating and illumin...

'Engaging, modern fables with a feminist tang' Sunday TimesDARK, POTENT AND UNCANNY, HAG BURSTS WITH THE UNTOLD STORIES OF OUR ISLES, CAPTURED IN VOICES AS VARIED AS THEY ARE VIVID.Here are sisters fighting for the love of the same woman, a pregnant archaeologist unearthing impossible bones and lost children following you home. A panther runs through the forests of England and pixies prey upon violent men....

Brought to you by Penguin.The electrifying new novel from the Booker shortlisted author of Everything Under.‘A short sharp explosion of a gothic thriller whose tension ratchets up and up to an ending of extraordinary lyricism and virtuosity’ Observer, Fiction to Watch Out For in 2020Something unspeakable has happened to sisters July and September.Desperate for a fresh start, their mother Sh...