Established in 2005, the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University was originally established to highlight a literary genre regarded as undervalued and under threat. It aimed to recognise and celebrate the very best writers of short fiction who had no prize equivalent to major literary awards like the Man Booker Prize. 19 years on, the short story is in robust health and the BBC National Short Story Award is recognised as the most prestigious for a single short story with th...

Don't miss the hilarious novel from the #1 bestselling author, Maddie Please, author of the brilliantly funny, Old Girls on Deck!A fresh start with a French twist!Joy Chandler had one simple wish: a nice, drama-free family reunion. But instead? Daughter Sara announces she's getting divorced and seems determined to drown her sorrows in wine, while son John and his perfect wife Vanessa casually drop the bombshell that they’re moving to New York—without so m...

Can We Still Be Friends is t****he debut novel by Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue.It's the summer of 1983 and best friends, Salome, Annie and Kendra have left university to embark on adulthood. Three very different girls with very different paths ahead.- Sal, the aspiring journalist whose personal demons threaten to destroy everything she has achieved.- Annie, the capable domestic beauty, convinced that m...

Maxim Jakubowski has once again compiled a blockbuster collection of the year's most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK. His aim is always to present the whole breadth of crime, mystery and thriller writing, from gentle stories of detection to puzzling historical labyrinths full of devious characters and sharp social comment about our imperfect society in some savage, and often scary stories.Last year saw a fifth Crime Writers Association Short Story Dagger award f...

'The Mersey Sound is an attempt to introduce contemporary poetry to the general reader by publishing representative work by each of three modern poets in a single volume, in each case the selection has been made to illustrate the poet's characteristics in style and form'. With this modest brief, The Mersey Sound was conceived and first published in 1967. An anthology which features Roger McGough's work, alongside that of Brian Patten and Adrian Henri (The Liverpool Poets)...

The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its sixth 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 raw and engrossing portrait of familial and marital dysfunction by “one of Britain’s most original young writers” (The Observer).Neve is a writer in her mid-thirties married to an older man, Edwyn. For now they are in a place of relative peace, but their past battles have left scars. As Neve recalls the decisions that led her to this marriage, she tells of other loves and other debts, from her bullying father and her self-involved mother to a musician wh...

A rich, penetrating memoir about the author's relationship with a flawed but influential figure—the painter Lucian Freud—and the satisfactions and struggles of a life lived through art.One of Britain's most important contemporary painters, Celia Paul has written a reflective, intimate memoir of her life as an artist. Self-Portrait tells the artist's story in her own words, drawn from early journal entries as well as memory, of her childhood in India and he...

A fragmentary account of life and its complexities, I said the sea was folded charts the first three years of Erik Jensen’s relationship with his partner, Evelyn Ida Morris. These are love poems, written against the difficulty of understanding another person. They are startling in their simplicity and their frankness.‘ A full, honest, brave, overflowing heart. Australia has her Emily Dickinson.’ —Kate Jennings

Inspired by Giles Gordon and David Hughes's Best Short Stories series, which ran to ten volumes between 1986 and 1995, Best British Short Stories this year reaches its thirteenth volume.Best British Short Stories 2023 showcases an excellent and varied selection of stories, by British writers, first published during 2022 in magazines, journals, anthologies, collections, chapbooks and online.This new anthology contains stories by Alinah Azadeh, Davi...

Outstanding short stories from the 20 writers from around the world shortlisted for the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize.

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror, and latterly, grief. She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books. Over the Moon is her fifth book from Bloodaxe. These are poe...