Other books that might interest you

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  Old Fags

  Stacy Aumonier

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  Nobel Prize winner (and Forsyte Saga author) John Galsworthy described Stacy Aumonier as ‘one of the best short-story writers of all time’ and predicted that, through the best of his stories, he would ‘outlive all the writers of his day’. "Old Fags" is one of Stacy Aumonier's most memorable stories. 
  
  
  Set in a miserable and overcrowded block of flats in London, whose inhabitants struggle daily against poverty and starvation, Old Fags is the pariah of the building. His nickname reflects his trade, collecting and repurposing cigarette butts. He is also prone to lose part of his days to gin bottle. Notwithstanding, he is a cheery and generous soul, more than willing to lend a helping hand to those who despise him. 
  
  
  When his neighbours, the Birdles, run into difficulties, he begins to supply them with delicious stews made with onions and mysterious meat. When Miss Birdle bears a child out of wedlock to an untrustworthy groom, Old Fags sets out to right the situation in the only way he knows how.

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  Constellation of Neon Lights

  Luna Harlow

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  Six short tales of life, death and optimism from Luna Harlow. 
   
  A young woman looks back on a grandparent and the nature of stories. Robots question the meaning of their existence. An old woman time travels through memory. A young man leaves a party and questions what he wants from life. Thirty-somethings talk about chemistry over brunch. 

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  Classic Short Stories - Volume...

  Katherine Mansfield, Edgar...

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  Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements.  Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page. 
   
  Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft.  Many attempt, but few achieve.

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  Grace on the Horizon

  Emma Lombard

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  GRACE ON THE HORIZON is the second full-length novel in The White Sails Series. Grace and Seamus, united by their past experiences, are adrift on a raft of shame in the sea of 1830s London society. After a personal tragedy, Grace's desperation to leave London forces Seamus to accept a dubious commission on the private explorer, Clover. 
  With the expedition financed by Colonel Hamilton and his private backers, Seamus is tasked with mapping a round-the-world voyage. But Colonel Hamilton has an additional package that requires delivering—Father Babcock—a priest wanted for murder. The church wants Babcock transported far from England to set up a new mission in South America. 
  Battling his overprotectiveness, Seamus breaks his oath to always tell Grace the truth and hides Babcock's identity from her. But the journey aboard the Clover is far from smooth sailing, and Grace suspects a saboteur. Trapped within the ship's confines, she must learn to forgive Seamus's well-intentioned duplicity and determine who wishes them harm—because now she also has her unborn child to protect. 
  Is it an aggrieved member of the Admiralty who believes Seamus disgraced the service by resigning his command to chase after Grace? Perhaps Grace's father, Lord Flint, seeking revenge against her for ruining the family name? Or a jealous suitor determined to ruin the life Grace is trying to build with Seamus? 
  From the damp cobbled streets of London, around the freezing stormy tip of Cape Horn, and into the scorching dusty bush of New Holland, GRACE ON THE HORIZON promises another romantic high-seas adventure bursting with action and suspense.

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  Fauna

  David Hartley

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  Fauna follows the lead of the bacon-skinned Pig with a menagerie of twisted tales about the lives and times of our fellow-feeling creatures. There are guinea pigs in the underworld, elephants in a virtual world, vengeful birds from a far-off world, and so much more beastliness. There will be nowhere for the humans to hide.
  
  "Brilliant imagination and sharp storytelling aside, Dr. David Hartley shows us a delightfully fresh way of looking at who should, really, be our closest friends."-  Nik Perring (Author of Not So Perfect, Freaks!)
  
   "Fiercely original, these are stories that are at times disturbing, absurd, and darkly comedic, and which refuse to conform to the constraints of time and space. A startling collection, that begs to be read aloud. Hartley is a brilliant storyteller, with the kind of 
  imagination that leaves you feeling a bit fearful for your own safety." - Lucie McKnight Hardy (Author of Water Shall Refuse Them)
  
   "I haven't read anything quite like these brilliant, dark and often fairy-tailish short stories. The tension is found here on the edges and boundaries: human/animal, natural/man-made, happiness/horror. With humour and an incredible versatility in voice and style - not to mention technology-hacking rabbits and horses who time travel - Hartley asks us to look hard at our own world and never, ever, underestimate the animals. " - Tania Hershman, author of Some Of Us Glow More Than Others and My Mother Was An Upright Piano
  
   Extract:
  
   A Panda Appeared in Our Street
  
  
       A panda appeared in our street, skewered to the railing outside my house. Let me paint the picture: there's the road outside my house, then there's this long strip of grass, then there's the houses opposite. And the grass has got these railings all the way around it, for kids to kick their footballs off and stuff, and this panda was just there that morning, stuck on a row of the spikes, directly opposite my house. 
      So, I went up to it and I was like that to the kids who were playing out, I was like; who's is this panda, lads? And they were like; dunno, dunno mate and they didn't seem to care. So, I knocked on to my neighbour, Gail, and she comes out and I'm like; Gail. Check this out. A panda. And she's like; hmm, oh yeah aye. So how are you keeping Jon, are you well? 
  But I'm like; Gail, it's a panda! What should we do? And she's like; leave it, it's just some kid's toy. 
      And that's when I realised. The people of the street; they weren't seeing the same thing I was. They were seeing a stuffed toy, like a teddy bear type thing, all synthetic fur and glass-bead eyes. But I was seeing something else. I was seeing a real-life panda skewered on a row of the railing spikes. And the poor bugger was still alive.
       There was blood on the floor and the panda was squirming and crying out a bit. I didn't know what to do. I thought about trying to lift it off, but you shouldn't do that in case you hit an artery. Or it might get angry and start attacking me, or it might run off and hurt some kid. So, I thought; ring the RSPCA, Jon, but if I'm the only one who can see it's a real panda, they might end up locking me away instead. So, I just left it. I guess I thought someone else would figure it out, or it would free itself or something.
   

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  Word Meal - Poetry Entrée with a...

  Rodolfo Villarreal-Calderon

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  From being a resident physician during the COVID-19 pandemic to living passionately in travel, romance, and heartache, Rodolfo Villarreal-Calderon is a literary chef to an audience who did not realize their hunger—until served his Word Meal. It is a two-part course: first, 99 poems, and second, an 82-page short story (novella). 
  The poetry is organized around the three abstractions that connect us all—Love, Time, and Death. Love of lovers, of dogs, and of self; the Death of body, our past, and who we once were; the Time within which this all transpires—the Time of your life. You are invited to explore each abstraction and their combinations. Buffet style. 
  In the drama that is a healthcare encounter, the patient is—and always will be—the protagonist. Get Well Soon! is a novella revolving around a patient admitted to the hospital. The patient narrator reflects on the experiences of being well and ill, as well as the subtle and comical workings of an academic hospital team and hospital stay.

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