The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its ninth year.Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover – or more accurately, by its title. This new 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 for the b...

A Life in Books: Books of the Year 2019Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2019In a world where we present our diverse selves through social media, chatbots and messaging, this dark novel listens in on intimate secrets, desires and adultery.This novel-within-a-novel charts the writing of a story about Richard and Anna, a middle-aged professional couple, who face the biggest crisis of their twenty-five-year marriage when he admits s...

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...

Lush Library Recommends: Anna James' Books for 2018Variations and fugue on the theme of obsessionVesna Main disturbs our self-image as educated, reasonable and ironic people who read modernist fiction. She disturbs us because we recognise ourselves in her obsessive and bloody-minded characters as they are pushed to the extreme. But they are only too human and seek love, just like us.This is a collection of twenty short stories of di...

Claire Meadows is ninety-two, a retired piano teacher. She's baked a pistachio cake, as she has for seventy years, and is waiting to be collected for the 102nd birthday party of her old friend Martin, a detective novelist. As she waits, her thoughts meander through a lifetime of memories – marriage, widowhood, friendship, longing, and a sexual awakening that came shockingly late.With humour, ambiguity, and sharp insight, Claire reconsiders the man she married, the life she lived, a...

122 fantastic stories from Britain's best crime writersFor ten years the Mammoth Best British Crime series has been publishing an annual volume of the most outstanding crime and mystery short fiction published in the UK. Over 400 stories by the very best writers in the field have been published. Contributors have included, among many others, Mark Billingham, Liza Cody, Roger Jon Ellory, Reginald Hill, Peter James, Simon Kernick, Alexander McCall Smith, Val McDermid...

Haunted by her past. In danger from her present.Isolated, alone, vulnerable.Sometimes the danger is closer than you think.As a teenager, Sarah D'Villez famously escaped a man who abducted and held her hostage for eleven days. The case became notorious, with Sarah's face splashed across the front of every newspaper in the country.Now, seventeen years later, that man is about to be released from prison. Fearful of the media storm that is sure to...

'Well now, prove it, Sheila. As John would say, "Put your money where your mouth is." Be a depressed widow boring the arse off everyone, or get on with life. Your choice.'In The Two of Us Sheila Hancock relived her life with John Thaw - years packed with love and family, work and houses, delight and despair. And then she looked ahead. What next? Gardening, grannying and grumbling, while they all had their pleasures, weren't going to fill the aching void that John had left....

In this thoughtful novel, a circle of friends and loved ones are attempting to face down their personal troubles: a deceased wife, a callous lover, an affair with a young colleague. As they stumble through the events of their own lives, they turn to one another for advice and compassion, and, occasionally, to cause more trouble. All three romances are faced with serious decisions--how to go escape their shortcomings and demons, how to move ahead, how to survive the decisions they make....

Book 2 in the fantastic four book series about taking risks and flying high, from the children's book legend Paul Jennings and brilliant cartoonist Andrew Weldon.'You're grounded, Ricky,' said Mum. 'Yes,' said Dad. 'In more ways than one.'Ricky is an ordinary boy, who can fly. He can really fly! But only when no one is looking. His dream is to one day be FAMOUS. But after accidentally opening the car window at the car wash, he's grounded. No movies...

Having spent over half a century on this intriguing and, sometimes, challenging planet, I have witnessed many technological and societal changes. I have seen fashions come and go...and come again...witnessed the advent of computers and mobile phones.I've watched record albums shrink into little discs, learnt how to zap food in seconds and seen cars get smaller and faster.I have married, raised a family and divorced. I'm proud to say I've even learnt a few things along the way...

The loss of a parent is an experience that we all face without any training - relating to a parent through old age and illness; going through the actual death in different circumstances and whether we can help parents to have a good death; the emotional aftermath - shock, grief, relief, the effect on families; funerals, wills and other rituals; clearing out the house and keeping memories alive; recovery and carrying on with life; the longer-term changes in us and our relationship with our ...