This collection includes both vintage crime stories such as 'Loopy' by Ruth Rendell; 'Insufficient Evidence' by Frances Hegarty; 'Nine Points of the Law' by E. W Hornung; 'The Case for the Defence' by Graham Greene; 'Bluebeards Bathtub' by Margery Allingham and 'Hunted Down' by Charles Dickens as well the classic crime stories 'The Blue Cross' by G...

The four stories in this collection include Baroness Orczy's 'The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway', Maurice Leblanc's 'The Mysterious Railway Passenger,' Victor Whitechurch and E. Conway's 'A Warning in Red' and Freeman Wills Crofts's 'The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express'.

'Plain Tales from the Hills' is an outstanding collection of stories of colonial life capturing all the richness of India's sights, sounds and smells. The tales Kipling tells are ones of loss, suffering and broken faith, a far cry from the celebratory patriotism that surrounded the Empire at the time. He writes with passion about the cultural, raci...

A rich selection of Irish stories comprising: 'The Model Millionaire' by Oscar Wilde; 'Rosanna' by Agnes Castle; 'The Brown Man' by Gerald Griffin; 'Bob Pentland, or the Ganger Outwitted' by William Carleton; 'Araby' by James Joyce; 'Adventures of a Strolling Player' by Oliver Goldsmith and 'Sir Dominic Sarsfield' by Sheridan Le Fanu.

A collection of short stories, including the long, three-part story, 'Telegony', which is a depiction of three generations of women and the clash of two very different cultures, English and Italian. The collection includes two ghost stories, 'Dead Children' and 'The Meeting House'.

Hardy's first collection of short stories was written between 1879-1888, with many of the tales set before Hardy's birth in 1840. These humorous and affectionate observations of rustic life include the following tales: 'An Imaginative Woman', 'The Three Strangers', 'The Withered Arm', 'Fellow-Townsmen', 'Interlopers at the Knap' and 'The Distracted...

Bizarre, amusing and grotesque, these tales enter the unexpected world of Dahl. They illustrate the different lives that people lead: a life of chance, of risk and of plain bad luck. The stories are specially chosen for teenagers to introduce them to Dahl's work for adults. The stories included are: 'Katina', 'Man from the South', 'Mrs Bixby and th...

An evocative anthology for Christmas. This collection contains complete versions of old favourites such as 'The Little Match Girl', 'The Night Before Christmas', and 'Christmas Day in the Workhouse'. Other extracts include a sermon by Lancelot Andrews, an account of Christmas under the Puritans and a Mummer's Play.

These stories, all written between 1929 and 1954, all share the themes that feature so strongly in Graham Greene's novels: humour and violence, pity and hatred, betrayal and pursuit. Comic, sad, shocking and tragic, they recount the tales of Mr Maling's loud stomach, destructive gangs of children, indiscretions revealed and secrets uncovered. CONTA...

This collection of short stories, previously published in anthologies and newspapers, consists of miniature studies of the endless absurdity of human behaviour. It includes 'Our Lives Are Only Lent To Us', discovered amongst the author's papers after her death.

Solving the mystery of the Primrose Path Home proves to be the first of a collection of great new cases, as Rumpole defies hospital and returns triumphantly to defend the innocent - and the not-so-innocent.The stories contained within are: 'Rumpole and the Primrose Path', 'Rumpole and the New Year's Resolutions', 'Rumpole and the Scales of Justice'...

A collection of love stories including: 'The Sphinx Without a Secret' by Oscar Wilde; 'For Better or Worse' by W.W Jacobs; 'Angela' by W.S Gilbert; 'Mr & Mrs Dove' by Katherine Mansfield'; 'Georgie Porgie' by Rudyard Kipling; 'Genefer' by Sabine Baring-Gould; 'The Singing Lesson' by Katherine Mansfield; 'The Patch on the Quilt' by Sapper; 'The...

Our narrator is sent on an errand to visit an old man, Simon Wheeler by a friend to find an old acquaintance of his. This is clearly a joke, because once our narrator gets there and asks about the acquaintance, Wheeler immediately begins to tell a long, boring, droll story about Jim Smiley. Jim Smiley is addicted to gambling. He bets on anything fr...

A political discussion piece, this story sees political canvassers in Ireland discussing the merits of their candidates and the advantages and pitfalls of their positions, including whether or not they are to be paid. Also concerned with allegiances and tensions between nationalists and loyalists, this story from 'Dubliners' is historically interes...

A foolhardy mouse named Mervyn with great faith in his own courage and invincibility, sets off to antagonize the household cat, Pouncetta. His family and friends fear the worst and lament his untimely demise, they may be surprised by the strange turn of events, facilitated in part to a perhaps unduly paranoid feline...

Our narrator stays on a Mediterranean island much longer than he intended to for a number of reasons. One reason is to prove his mother and his girlfriend wrong, who both say that to decamp to an island for a whole winter to write a novel is melodramatic and rather a clich‚. Most nights, to abate loneliness and pass the time, he talks to the...

One of the Runagates Club stories, where members of a dinner club take it in turns to relate a tale to the other guests. A man is shipwrecked on a desert island in the Archipelago. He has heard that either he will find nothing to eat or else he will be eaten by the local savages. Either way things don't look too promising. He is, in fact, captured...

Published in 1899, in "Grey Weather", a collection of short stories and poems by the author, Buchan.

After a six-year hiatus, a man and a woman who used to be lovers or close friends meet in a caf‚. An insightful study of relationships and nostalgic ideals, this story also looks at the difference money, or the lack of it, can make, especially if one half of a couple (romantic or otherwise) is financially better off than the other.

Loretta, Mary, Anne and Sylvia are four young women who belong to a sisterhood composed of superior women, who for various reasons, determine to remain single and devote themselves to earnest work. They, do not rush into marriage recklessly like other young girls, who fear being single and perhaps penniless or uncared for. They enjoy their liberty...

Nunzia's sister keeps birds in a cage outside the bedroom that they share. Nunzia herself cares not at first for the birds, but all the same keeps her own secret locked in a cage inside her. What is the secret that makes the bird inside her flutter around her chest excitedly? And why does her secret result in her half-starving her family with doubt...