Philip Hensher

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The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Sometimes - not often - a book comes along that feels like Christmas. A Santa's sack of goodies to be unwrapped, revealing ever more lovely treats. Philip Hensher's timely, but timeless, selection of the best short stories from the past 20 years is that kind of book. In fact, his introduction is as enriching as anything that has been published this year.

Like its predecessors, this volume is a feast, and every morsel worth savouring

We are living in a particularly rich period for British short stories. Despite the relative lack of venues in which they can be published, the challenge the medium represents has attracted many remarkable writers. Philip Hensher, following the great success of his definitive two-volume The Penguin Book of the British Short Story, has been reading a vast trove of material and has chosen thirty great stories, written between the death of Princess Diana and the present day.

'Sometimes - not often - a book comes along that feels like Christmas. Philip Hensher's timely, but timeless, selection of the best short stories from the past 20 years is that kind of book. His introduction is as enriching as anything that has been published this year' Sunday Times 
 
A spectacular treasury of the best British short stories published in the last twenty years 
 
We are living in a particularly rich period for British short stories. Despite the relative lack of places in which they can be published, the challenge the medium represents has attracted a host of remarkable, subversive, entertaining and innovative writers. Philip Hensher, following the success of his definitive Penguin Book of British Short Stories, has scoured a vast trove of material and chosen thirty great stories for this new volume of works written between 1997 and the present day. 
 
Includes short stories by A.L. Kennedy, Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jackie Kay, Graham Swift, Jane Gardam, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman, Martin Amis, China Miéville, Peter Hobbs, Thomas Morris, David Rose, David Szalay, Irvine Welsh, Lucy Caldwell, Rose Tremain, Helen Oyeyemi, Leone Ross, Helen Simpson, Zadie Smith, Will Self, Gerard Woodward, James Kelman, Lucy Wood, Hilary Mantel, Eley Williams, Sarah Hall, Mark Haddon and Helen Dunmore.

Philip Hensher is the editor of the highly-praised two-volume Penguin Book of the British Short Story. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. His most recent novel is The Friendly Ones (2018).

The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story

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