' Staggering and unforgettable storytelling' Mel Giedroyc In his retirement at the Vatican, emeritus pope Benedict XVI is hard at work on his magnum opus: a high-school comedy screenplay. At a grimy pub in North London, a doctoral researcher is abducted by gangsters peddling William Wordsworth' s handwritten account of drug-fuelled sex orgies. In the West African state of Benin, a politician' s daughter inherits a large cash sum which she can only launder with the help of a random Englishm...

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...

'Like a pizza delivery driver who travels everywhere by moped, or a volcanologist who keeps turning the central heating up, I'm a film critic who loves going to the cinema.' - Peter Bradshaw.Peter Bradshaw is the film reviewer for intelligent, curious cinemagoers; he has worked at the Guardian for twenty years. The Films That Made Me collates his finest reviews from the last two decades, which carry with them his deep experience, knowledge and und...

**Now with an exclusive extract of Bella Mackie's deliciously dark new 2026 novel CLAWS OUT!**Grace Bernard is on a mission… to avenge her mother, she plans to murder every member of her family, one awful rich person at a time. Then she's imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. Entertaining, shocking and addictive… THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER‘I loved this book’ RICHARD OSMAN‘Funny, sharp, dark and twis...

Thick with owls and badgers, oak trees and wood piles, scarecrows and ghosts, and Tom Cox's loud and excitable dad, this book is full of the folklore of several counties the ancient kind and the everyday variety as well as wild places, mystical spots and curious objects. Emerging from this focus on the detail are themes that are broader and bigger and more important than ever.Tom's writing treads a new path, one that has a lot in common with a rambling country walk; it's bewitched ...

Dawn French is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, with a career that has spanned nearly three decades. Loved for her irreverant humour, Dawn has achieved massive mainstream success while continuing to push boundaries and challenge stereotypes. Here she describes the journey that would eventually establish her as a perhaps unlikely, but nevertheless genuine, national treasure.Dawn began her career as part of the groundbreaking alternative comedy group, the Comic Strip...

Birkenhead, 1973. The eighteen-year-old Paul O'Grady gets ready for a big Saturday night out on the town. New white T-shirt, freshly ironed jeans, looking good. As he bids farewell to his mum, who's on the phone to his auntie, and wanders off down the street in a cloud of aftershave, he hears her familiar cry: 'Oh, the devil rides out tonight, Annie. The devil rides out!'The further adventures of Paul O'Grady - following on from the million-copy-selling At My Mother's Knee...

The best of the best …This essential book takes a decade of Best Australian Stories and selects the most outstanding short fiction by the country’s finest writers. These stories range widely in style and subject matter: there is drama and comedy, subtlety and extravagance, tales of suspense, love, fantasy, grief and revenge. Together they showcase the strength and diversity of Australian fiction at its very best.Contributors include: Murray Bail, D...

“One the Best Horror Books of the Year”, Barnes & Noble BlogAn electrifying horror anthology featuring 21 short stories from modern masters of the genre, including a brand-new chiller by A Head Full of Ghosts author Paul Tremblay.Introducing twenty-one brand-new stories of the ominous and terrifying from some of the horror genre’s most talented writers, including:Paul Tremblay: “The Dead Thing” draws us int...

A classic Agatha Christie short story, featuring Miss Marple, from the collection Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories.Joyce Lempiere tells the Tuesday Night Club of an incident that occurred five years ago when she was vacationing at a small inn on the Cornish coast. She was painting a picture of the front of the inn, including details of wet bathing suits drying on the balcony of Denis and Margery Dacre, when she realised she had incl...

'Walters's book . . . has moments of Alan Bennett warmth' SUNDAY TIMES'Humorous and . . . moving' WOMAN AND HOME'I was enthralled by her memoirs' A. N. Wilson, READER'S DIGESTHer mum wanted her to be a nurse so that is what Julie did.But in her heart she had always wanted to be an actress and soon she was on stage at the local theatre in Liverpool. Her career snowballed with highli...

18 ghost stories will chill you to the bone in this horror anthology featuring original short stories by Joe Hill, Paul Tremblay, and more!“I’m incredibly impressed. It’s beautifully crafted, elegant work.” —Clive Barker, author of The Hellbound Heart and Books of BloodThe brightest names in horror fiction showcase a ghastly collection of 18 ghost stories that will have you watching over your shoulder, heart racing at ever...