Philip Hensher

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The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story

Discover the Penguin books that shaped us

A bold anthology ... alive with provocations and insights

Praise for THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE BRITISH SHORT STORY, John Carey

Hensher's anthology is bigger, better and broader in several senses than anything else currently available

Praise for THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE BRITISH SHORT STORY

Almost 100 potent doses of the form which editor Philip Hensher claims very plausibly to be "the richest, most varied and most historically extensive national tradition anywhere in the world"... Hensher has spent a couple of years searching libraries and magazine archives and comes out staggering under a weight of treasures

Praise for THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE BRITISH SHORT STORY, Claire Harman

Like one of the legion of cantankerous, eccentric hosts we meet across this generous terrain, Hensher knows how to lay a grand spread...so enjoy the feast

Praise for THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE BRITISH SHORT STORY, Boyd Tonkin

Anyone reading this collection just for pleasure should start at the end of the second volume and work backwards...it would quickly bring you to four outstanding stories by women...each of these, though quickly over, leaves a lasting mark in the mind

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 Penguin Book of British Short Stories, 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. The authors and their stories will be revealed on publication.

'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.

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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A bold anthology ... alive with provocations and insights

Hensher's anthology is bigger, better and broader in several senses than anything else currently available

Like one of the legion of cantankerous, eccentric hosts we meet across this generous terrain, Hensher knows how to lay a grand spread...so enjoy the feast

Anyone reading this collection just for pleasure should start at the end of the second volume and work backwards...it would quickly bring you to four outstanding stories by women...each of these, though quickly over, leaves a lasting mark in the mind

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