"Hilary Mantel and Helen Simpson feature in the nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its fifth year …"

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 editor's brief is wide ranging, covering anthologies, collections, magazines, newspapers and web sites, looking for the best of the bunch to reprint all in one volume.

Authors include Hilary Mantel, Alison Moore, Jenn Ashworth, Helen Simpson, Charles Wilkinson, Rebecca Swirsky, Matthew Sperling, Julianne Pachico, KJ Orr, Bee Lewis, Uschi Gatward, Emma Cleary and Neil Campbell.



- Introduction

- Hilary Mantel – The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher August 6th 1983

- Julianne Pachico – Lucky

- Bee Lewis – The Iron Men

- Jonathan Gibbs – Festschrift

- Jenn Ashworth – Five Thousand Lads a Year

- Neil Campbell – LS Lowry/ Man Lying on a Wall

- Emma Cleary – Lightbox

- Jim Hinks – Green Boots' Cave

- Uschi Gatward – The Clinic

- Tracey S Rosenberg – May the Bell Be Rung For Harriet

- Helen Simpson – Strong Man

- Matthew Sperling – Voice Over

- K J Orr – The Lake Shore Limited

- Tamar Hodes – The First Day

- Alan Mccormick – Go Wild in the Country

- Helen Marshall – Secondhand Magic

- Charles Wilkinson – Fresh Water

- Rebecca Swirsky – The Common People

- Alison Moore – Eastmouth

- Julianne Pachico – The Tourists

- Joanna Walsh – Worlds From the Word's End

- Contributors' Biographies

- Acknowledgements



(on previous work) It's so good that it's hard to believe that there was no equivalent during the 17 years since Giles Gordon and David Hughes's Best English Short Stories ceased publication in 1994. The first selection makes a very good beginning … Highly Recommended.



(on previous work) Let's hope this series becomes an annual fixture.



(on previous work) Another effective and well-rounded short story anthology from Salt – keep up the good work, we say!



(on previous work) This annual feast satisfies again. Time and again, in Royle's crafty editorial hands, closely observed normality yields (as Nikesh Shukla's spear-fisher grasps) to the things we 'cannot control'.



Nicholas Lezard's paperback choice: Hilary Mantel's fantasia about the assassination of Margaret Thatcher leads this year's collection of familiar and lesser known writers.