Eclectic, entertaining almost all British, if not human, life is here' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 'Mind-stretching, heart-breaking, beautifully-crafted fiction' Claire Harman, Evening Standard 'She would tear the house down - shatter the windows, slash the furniture, flood the baths, fire the curtains!' Hilarious, exuberant, surreal, subtle, tender, brutal, spectacular and above all unexpected: this extraordinary selection celebrates the British short story from the 1920s to the present day From Angela Carter to V S Pritchett, Elizabeth Taylor to J G Ballard, Ali Smith to a host of little-known works from magazines and periodicals, and including tales of air-raids, phone sex, snobbery, modern-day slavery, grief, desire, the familiar and the strange, here is the short story in all its limitless possibilities Edited and with an introduction by Philip Hensher, the award-winning novelist, critic and journalist