Best British Short Stories 2024 edited by Nicholas Royle

Salt Press has recently published Best British Short Stories 2024, edited by Nicholas Royle. It features stories by Alan Beard, Kevin Boniface, Paul Brownsey, Claire Carroll, ECM Cheung, Jonathan Coe, Rosie Garland, Kerry Hadley-Pryce, Timothy Jarvis, Cynan Jones, Bhanu Kapil, Sonya Moor, Alison Moore, Gregory Norminton, Nicholas Royle, Cherise Saywell, Kamila Shamsie, Ben Tufnell, Charlotte Turnbull and Cate West.

 

Precipitation, by Ailsa Cox, with images by Patricia Farrell

Precipitation is a collection of three stories by Ailsa Cox, two of which are published for the first time. It also features images created by the artist Patricia Farrell in response to the stories. The book is the fifth in a series of collaborations between writers and artists – the first, Interpolated Stories by David Rose and Leah Leaf, was published in 2022.

Set mostly in North West England, with excursions to Wales, Paris and the Arabian desert, these stories map the inner and outer world of their characters, excavating layers of time and memory. Two of the stories take place on the fictional street of Bethel Brow, where a grandmother nurses a long-held grievance, while two young incomers live the dream of a house in the country. In the third, the thwarted ambitions of a disappointed novelist take him on an imaginary journey.

Sharply observed and often darkly comic, they hinge upon those small moments that can change your life for ever – a missed train, a turn in the weather, or a puzzling encounter with a neighbour.

Publication: 9 January 2025 | Pre-order: Confingo Publishing | Manchester Book Publisher.

 

Ethel Colburn Mayne: Selected Stories, edited by Elke D’hoker

This new book contains a selection of the short stories of the Irish writer, Ethel Colburn Mayne, who published her first stories in The Yellow Book but later also contributed to modernist magazines and was routinely compared to Katherine Mansfield. Her work has been wrongly sidelined and really deserves to be more widely read. Copies can be ordered here.

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