This is a book for everyone, whether you furtively snatch your reading time or have the luxury of being able to sink into the welcoming depths of a book for hours. The short stories chosen here, pack in all of the emotions of a longer novel, in fact sometimes you are more affected, more surprised, more energised precisely because one of these talented authors has been able to create such an impact in a few short pages. You will undoubtedly have your favourites in this engaging book and that’s the joy, you can visit the past, different countries, sadness, elation and several will call specifically to you. So savour these snapshots displaying a host of different worlds, dip in and out or sit and gorge to your hearts content. ~ Liz Robinson
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 best of the bunch to reprint all in one volume.
Nicholas Royle is the author of more than 100 short stories, two novellas and six novels. His short story collection, Mortality (Serpent’s Tail), was shortlisted for the inaugural Edge Hill Prize. He has edited fifteen anthologies of short stories, including A Book of Two Halves (Gollancz), The Time Out Book of Paris Short Stories (Penguin), ’68: New Stories by Children of the Revolution (Salt) and Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds (Two Ravens Press). A senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School at MMU, he reviews fiction for the Independent and the Warwick Review. A new novel, First Novel (Jonathan Cape), is due to appear in 2013 and a collection of short stories, London Labyrinth (No Exit Press), is forthcoming. He lives in Manchester. He also runs Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories as signed, limited-edition chapbooks.
