The collection begins in the 1950s in an insular northern village 'scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues.' For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out. The title story sees our narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress with one lung and a Manchester accent. In Third Floor Ri...

Two sisters, Edith and Maud, are both in love with Saumarez. They have "a strong likeness between them in look and voice", and it is only a matter of time before they are mistaken for each other by the unlucky man. This was one of Rudyard Kipling's earlier tales, and made its first appearance in 'Plain Tales From the Hills', one of his celebrated c...

The Kipling story Kidnapped was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on March 21st 1887, in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of that collection.

A short and dark story about three men, a father and two brothers, who make their living by poaching and other such illegal activities and are 'hard drinkers and quick fighters'. When tragedy strikes, the reaction of their community is not necessarily what they may have expected. An intense and brief study of a moody setting and unsettling characte...

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson, author of the groundbreaking, highly acclaimed Jesus' Son. Written in the same luminous prose, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating mortality, the ghosts of the past, and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe...

This collection is Jamaica Kincaid's earliest published writings: her inspired, lyrical short stories.These stories plunge the listener gently into another way of perceiving both the physical world and its elusive inhabitants. Her narrative is, by turns, na‹vely whimsical and biblical in its assurance, and it speaks of what is partially remembered,...

Read by two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks. A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game - and t...

Here are four stories by the most popular mystery writer of all time; stories told by Miss Marple and her friends and solved by that elderly white-haired lady with the faded blue eyes and quiet nature. They are read by Joan Hickson, who played Miss Marple in the television series based on the works of Agatha Christie. In The Thumbmark of St Peter M...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Last Stories by William Trevor, read by Niamh Cusack, Stephen Hogan and Tara Fitzgerald. In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when th...

In a sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time. From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the hush-hush floor of an exclusive Hollywood hotel, the characters we encounter range from young dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning. Gentle,...

In this addictive short story collection, twenty-four very different women reach a pivotal moment in their lives. A widow is liberated by a new job, but keeps it secret from her family. A date in suburbia has dramatic results. A seamstress takes revenge on an unsuspecting customer, while in France, a mother is promised 'fantastic news' - and lets h...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Galloping Foxley by Roald Dahl, read by Richard Griffiths. In Galloping Foxley, Roald Dahl tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a commuter is disturbed by an encounter with a man he vividly remembers from school . . . Galloping Foxley is taken from the short story collection S...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Katina by Roald Dahl, read by Cillian Murphy. In Katina, Roald Dahl tells of a young Greek girl fascinated by the British planes and airbase that have come to her village. Katina is taken from the short story collection Over to You, which includes nine other dramatic and terrifying tales of life as a wartim...

Brought to you by Penguin. How often do you think about your bedtime routine? Almost half of people in Britain say they're kept awake at night due to worry and stress - so making time to switch off in the hour before bed is more important than ever. Penguin Sleep Tales are ten specially designed descriptive audio tales to help you wind down and rel...

Andrew Sachs stars as the famous clerical sleuth in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. With his black hat, huge umbrella, unwordly simplicity and 'beaming but breathless geniality', Father Brown is one of fiction's best-loved amateur detectives. Short and tatty, but with the wisdom and insight to unravel the most wayward of criminal minds, h...

Be cruel to animals at your peril - this story extols the virtues of being kind to all creatures to achieve happiness in life, a lesson that our unhappy protagonist is far from learning, whether in regards to human or animal life. A shocking story told with a dry dark humor, this tale is to be heard to be believed and is a true classic from the mas...

This collection comprises the best of classic horror writing, with the atmospheric genius of Edgar Allen Poe, the invention and eeriness of Bram Stoker, and the suspense of Wilkie Collins amongst the terrifying gems contained. A veritable schooling in the origins of modern-day horror and fantasy, some of the best minds in the history of English lit...

A popular story in the acclaimed 'Pat Hobby' series. Poor Pat Hobby's fates go from bad to worse when he gets the wrong impression of a heated situation. Amusing and delightfully cringeworthy at times, Pat Hobby is a stubborn anti-hero who you won't be able to resist.

In the summer of 1959, an Antiguan immigrant in north west London lives the last day of his life, unknowingly caught in someone else's story of hate and division, resistance and revolt. A mother looks back on her early forays into matters of the human heart - and other parts of the human body - considering the ways in which desire is always an act...

Kabu kabu-unregistered illegal Nigerian taxis-generally get you where you need to go. Nnedi Okorafor's Kabu Kabu, however, takes the listener to exciting, fantastic, magical, occasionally dangerous, and always imaginative locations you didn't know you needed. This debut short story collection by an award-winning author includes notable previously p...

In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all of Hilary Mantel's gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in 'Comma'; nurses clash in 'Harley Street' over something more than professional differences. Whether set in a claustrophobic Saudi Arabian flat or on a precarious mountain r...