The Best Short Stories 2026
£16.99The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by a diverse and exciting array of writers.
Showing 1–16 of 23 resultsSorted by latest
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The Times Sporting Legends
£16.99A must-read collection for all sports fans
Step into the exhilarating world of legendary athletes with this collection of obituaries from The Times.
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A Literary Dog for Every Day of the Year
£14.99Dogs are our constant companions: from Greyfriars Bobby and the Famous Five’s Timmy, to Mr Rochester’s Pilot and the faithful Argos of Homer’s Odyssey, we have all grown up with a dog – whether real or fictional. Rediscover the joy of childhood friends and much-loved pets with this selection of quotes and passages from poems and stories that celebrate some of the most memorable and best-loved dogs in literature.
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Bedside Companion to the Sea
£25.00Set sail into a year of sea-themed writing with the sixth title in the beloved ‘Bedside Companion’ series, collating 366 extracts selected from across the spectrum of literature.
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Classic Summer Stories
£10.99A collection of short stories inspired by the most vibrant season of the year.
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Over the Water
£10.99There’s something about islands: the way they shift and change with the weather, the promise of escape, the pull of the sea. Often remote, almost always idyllic, they lend themselves to metaphor and marvel as well as to escape and indulgence. In these essays, 13 writers capture the magic and mirage of islands. Taking us from the glimmering coast of Cornwall’s St Ives to the populated archipelagos off the coast of Ireland, from the warm water and glowing sun of Phuket to feasts of halloumi and chilled watermelon along the shores of Cyprus, ‘Over the Water’ urges us to consider: what is an island?
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The Road Ahead
£10.99A beautiful graduation gift offering advice, inspiration and encouragement from some of our greatest writers and thinkers.
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Part of the Story
£22.00This rare self-portrait from pioneering publisher, writer and cultural activist Margaret Busby underscores her powerful legacy and celebrates some of the people and places that have shaped her exceptional life.
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Poetry of the Zodiac
£16.99A fun and enlightening collection that takes you on a journey around the different signs of the zodiac wheel. Accompanied with beautiful illustrations, this book covers each of the star signs, harnessing the power of words and language to illuminate the different characteristics and to help you explore your own emotional constellations. Whether you’re an energetic Aries, a curious Gemini or a diligent Virgo, you’ll find here poems that reflect your own traits and poems to deepen your understanding of others. Included are some of our greatest writers – both classic and contemporary – from Ptolemy and Rainer Maria Rilke to Langston Hughes and Jane Hirshfield, all casting light on the personal, the mysterious, the celestial and the universal. Each chapter includes around 10 poems, as well as a short introduction to the star sign, making the collection accessible to those less familiar with the subject and those who are curious to learn mor
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Emily Dickinson
£14.99Explore the enigmatic life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, whose poetry delves into themes of death, nature, love and the complexities of the human soul, making her a timeless figure in American literature.
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The Virago Book of Friendship
£12.99Friendship has never been more talked about. Some of this has to do with the internet (the perils of WhatsApp groups, and of ghosting), and some, with the realisation that loneliness in our society is increasing. Friendship is being written about, and researched, seriously, by therapists and scientists alike. We all now know of the importance of friendship. But it’s hard to get inside friendship: its particular intensity; its singular ease; the way it can wax and wane; its ability to cause uncommon pain. This is the territory of novels and letters, poems and graphic novels – which is where ‘The Virago Book of Friendship’ steps in. Celebratory, but also explanatory and wide in scope – from the Bible to Yellowface, from school friends to the loss of friends in old age – this book includes Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Vivian Gornick, Helen Garner, Dolly Alderton – among nearly one hundred others.
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Diaries of Note
£25.00What is more personal, more intimate, than the diary? Throughout time and across the world, humans from all walks of life have kept diaries: they are the repositories of our most unvarnished truths, our most poignant hopes, hidden desires and our deepest fears. Now, in ‘Diaries of Note’, Shaun Usher collects 366 of the most noteworthy diary entries ever written, one for each day of the leap year, each authored by a different individual. The diary welcomes all to its pages, and through this book you will encounter world leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Theodore Roosevelt and Emperor Uda, artists and writers, like Frida Kahlo, Seamus Heaney, David Sedaris and Shirley Jackson, film stars and musical icons, including Brian Eno, Emma Thompson and Elton John, as well as people whose lives were never illuminated by fame – yet their diaries reveal them to have been extraordinary.
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A Literary Cat for Every Day of the Year
£14.99From Six Dinner Sid and T.S. Eliot’s rebellious Rum Tum Tugger to the infuriating Cheshire Cat of Wonderland and Behemoth the Cat, the demonic shapeshifter of Bulgakov’s ‘The Master and Margarita’, ‘A Literary Cat for Every Day of the Year’ draws together quotes and passages from poems and stories in celebration of the most famous cats in literature. A must-have for all cat-lovers and book lovers, this inspirational collection – with vintage line illustrations – is the perfect gift for feline fans to treasure all year long.
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That Glimpse of Truth
£30.00The 100 finest short stories ever written, collected in one gorgeous volume.
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Ghost
£22.00An anthology collection of 100 scary stories to read with the lights on, selected and introduced by award-winning author Louise Welsh.Haunted houses, mysterious counts, weeping widows and restless souls, here is the definitive anthology of all that goes bump in the night. Hand-picked by award-winning author Louise Welsh, this beautiful collection of 100 ghost stories will delight, unnerve, and entertain any fiction lover brave enough…Here are gothic classics, modern masters, Booker Prize-winners, ancient folk tales and stylish noirs, proving that every writer has a skeleton or two in their closet.The all-star cast of authors inlude: Hilary Mantel, William Faulkner, Kate Atkinson, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Franz Kafka, Ruth Rendell, Edgar Allan Poe, William Trevor, Helen Simpson, Haruki Murakami, Dylan Thomas, Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Lydia Davis, Sir Walter Scott, Annie Proulx, Bram Stoker, Angela C