From an old regional theatre on the English coast to a Hollywood sound stage, an odd audition in London, by way of a sad and lonely hotel that attracts a series of strange residents. And much else too. Here are reflections on the nature of truth, how fiction and childish verse can impact reality, and the dangers inherent in retreating from that reality. Photographs and hauntings. Loss and longing. Just how lucky is it being lucky. Strange revenges and even stranger curses....

“A prodigiously imaginative collection.”—New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice“Dazzling tales from a master of the fantastic.”—Washington Post Book WorldFragile Things is a sterling collection of exceptional tales from Neil Gaiman, multiple award-winning (the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Newberry, and Eisner Awards, to name just a few), #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Coraline, ...

Witty, heartbreaking, shocking, satirical: the short story can excite or sadden, entice or repulse. The one thing it can never be is dull. Now Victoria Hislop, passionate ambassador for the art of the short story, has collected 100 stories from her favourite women writers into one volume.Here are Man Booker Prize winners and Nobel Laureates, well-known feminists and famous wits, national treasures and rising stars. All handpicked by one of the nation's best-loved novelists, there's...

'Funny, inspiring and uplifting' Nina Stibbe 'Raging, outrageous and joyous' Nikki May 'A must-read for all people-pleasers! … Explosive, funny, thought-provoking' Good HousekeepingFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a fierce, joyful and uplifting novel about putting life on pause – just for one day.After a morning that starts with a terrible migraine, an accidentally strong concoction of painki...

‘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...

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...

WINNER OF THE 2018 BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY AWARD FOR BEST ANTHOLOGY. Includes Josh Malerman's 'House of the Head' as seen in Creepshow. An electrifying anthology of new horror stories by award-winning masters of the genre, including Josh Malerman, Ramsey Campbell, Alison Littlewood and Christopher Golden. FEAR COMES IN MANY FORMS The horror genre's greatest living practitioners drag our darkest fears kicking and screaming into the light in this collection of nineteen brand-new stories. In ...

An incredible fourth book in the horror anthology series which Booklist called "Highly recommended for longstanding horror fans and those readers who may not think horror is for them. There is something for everyone in this one."Darkness Beckons is the fourth volume in the non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains...

Darkness, both literal and psychological, holds its own unique fascination. Despite our fears, or perhaps because of them, readers have always been drawn to tales of death, terror, madness, and the supernatural, and no more so than today when a wildly imaginative new generation of dark dreamers is carrying on in the tradition of Poe and Lovecraft and King, crafting exquisitely disturbing literary nightmares that gaze without flinching into the abyss—and linger in the mind long after.

A doctor makes a late-night emergency call to an exclusive California riding school; a professor inherits a mysterious vase... and a strange little man; a struggling youth discovers canine horrors lurking beneath the streets of Albany; a sheriff ruthlessly deals with monstrosities plaguing his rural town; a pair of animal researchers makes a frightening discovery at a remote site; a sweet little girl entertains herself... by torturing faeries; a group of horror aficionados attempts to trac...

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...

'A masterful collection' MAXINE PEAKE'Astonishing and long overdue, you really need to read this’ ALAN MOORE**'**An absolute treat' ADAM S. LESLIEUnleash the dark and delirious with this electrifying anthology of folk horror from some of Britain's most iconic working-class voicesA phonograph cylinder that plays on a loop for eternity, casting out ghostly spectres of violence; a centuries-old s...