Publisher: Salt
'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 year is 2046. Nikkolas Tensig is living a comfortable life. He has a great job at the Gen-Ham factory creating Droid-Pets. At the end of each day, he enjoys returning to his plush modern home, complete with two female android servants. But his idyllic existence is turned inside out as he begins experiencing alarming dreams and visions, while his newest android, REENA 5, begins to exhibit some highly strange behavior. What follows is surreal and terrifying, and will lead Nikk to question his own sanity and grip on reality, in this Sci-Fi Horror you won't soon forget. Presented in Radio Drama style with immersive modern sound effects to enhance listening enjoyment.35 minutesAge: teen to adultShow book
Bernard Edward Joseph Capes was born on the 30th August 1854 in London. He was one of 11 children. His early work was as a journalist and this developed into writing many short stories for the periodicals of the time including Blackwood's, Cassell's, Cornhill Magazine, Illustrated London News, Macmillan's Magazine, Mall Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, The Idler, and The Queen. It took him many years to decide that writing full-time could be a sustainable career path. His initial success came with ‘The Mill of Silence’. As well as being published it garnered second prize at a competition sponsored by the Chicago Record. He exceeded that by winning it the following year with ‘The Lake of Wine’. Capes quickly became both prolific and popular. As well as his stories and articles for the periodicals he wrote around 40 volumes across novels, poetry, history as well as romance and mystery novels. Bernard Capes died on 2nd November 1918 in the flu epidemic.Show book
Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number. Such is its popularity that we thought it is also a very good way of challenging and investigating an author’s work to give width, brevity, humour and depth across six of their very best. In this series we gather together authors whose short stories both rivet the attention and inspire the imagination to visit their gems in a series of six, to roam across an author’s legacy in a few short hours and gain a greater understanding of their writing and, of course, to be lavishly entertained by their ideas, their narrative and their way with words. These stories can be surprising and sometimes at a tangent to what we expected, but each is fully formed and a marvellous adventure into the world and words of a literary master. 1 - Six of the Best - Edgar Allan Poe - An Introduction 2 - Edgar Allan Poe - An Introduction 3 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe 4 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe 5 - The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe 6 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe 7 - The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe 8 - The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe 9 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe 10 - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Part 2 by Edgar Allan PoeShow book
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke was born into a troubled marriage on the 4th December 1875 in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother, having previously lost a baby girl, would dress the young boy up in girl’s clothing. Later his father dispatched him to a military academy at age 10 but after a miserable 5 years the young Rilke left due to illness and instead entered first Prague and then Munich and finally Berlin university to study art history, philosophy and literature. His initial forays into literature was in poetry. His intense, mystical and lyrical style was much admired and over time inspired many in succeeding generations. His short prose collection ‘Stories of God’, written in an impassioned burst over several nights was published in 1900 and offers a beguiling view of much of Rilke’s influences and outlook. The following year he married the pioneering sculptor and artist Clara Westhoff. The union produced one child, a daughter Ruth. He lived in Paris for most of the Century’s first decade where he mixed with many great minds of the time. Although he continued to write he also worked as a secretary to the sculptor, Rodin. It was only after they settled in Switzerland in 1919 that his writing output was in full flow. Here he wrote profusely in both German and French, which included much on his previous travels, his left-wing sympathies, his religious and existential thoughts, all part of a unique and consummate style. From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled with his health which was now in constant decline and often spent time rehabilitating at a sanatorium. Rainer Maria Rilke died of leukaemia on the 29th December 1926 in Montreux, Switzerland. He was 51.Show book
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Here is a fourth collection of some of his best stories: The Tell-Tale Heart, Eleanora, and Silence: A Fable.Show book
Katherine O'Flaherty was born on the 8th February 1850 in St Louis, Missouri to parents of French and Irish descent. At age 5, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy and, apart from a 2 year period at home when her father died, remained there until graduating in 1868. Whilst there she began writing and became an avid reader of almost anything that crossed her path. Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and the couple moved to New Orleans, and later to the rural setting of Cloutierville, Louisiana to raise their 6 children. In 1882 her husband died leaving her in a deep trench of debt. Despite her best efforts to turn the businesses around they were sold, and she moved the family back to St Louis and the financial help of her mother. Sadly, her mother died within the year. Kate, now struggling with depression, pushed herself to write and gained a local reputation as a writer of short stories that captured the local color and vibrancy of her surroundings. By the early 1890’s her short stories were published nationally. With this widespread audience also came negative reviews, controversy, and cries of immorality as themes such as interracial relationships, the rights of women and other burning issues of the day were written about. Despite the criticism, which unnerved her, she continued to write though in the main her works, around 100 short stories and two novels, were not attributed with any literary worth. Kate Chopin died from a brain haemorrhage in St Louis Missouri on the 22nd of August 1904. She was 54. For much of the 20th Century her work was forgotten and out of print. It was only in early 1970’s, with the rise of feminism and the call for a more just society that she was given the status her works had long described and shone a literary light at. She is now safely revered as one of America’s great authors.Show book
