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Short stories

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About this list

The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Service.

Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan.

If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email library@.uk

If you would like further information, or help in selecting titles to read, then please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 53 33 or email libraryinfo@.uk

You can write to us at:

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PO Box 173

Peterborough

PE2 6WS

Booklist

City secrets. 2002. 3v. UK Loan only.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers introduce us to a dark, witty and refreshingly uncensored collection of short stories.

Damage land: new Scottish gothic fiction. 2001. 3v.

This is a collection of contemporary Scottish gothic fiction. As well as a bloody and turbulent history, Scotland has produced some of the world's most eerie and disturbing fiction. The national psyche seethes with Tam O'Shanters and Mr Hydes, justified sinners and wasp factories, monstrous apparitions, witches, doppelgangers and psychopaths. Here, a selection of Scottish writers have plumbed their depths, creating a set of demons for a modern age.

Dim sum: (little pieces of heart): British Chinese short stories. 1997. 2v.

This collection of short stories by British Chinese writers offers a rare insight into the experiences of a generation caught between the face of tradition and the development of their own cultural identity. Like 'little pieces of heart' to which the title refers, Dim Sum gives you a satisfying sample of snack sized bites, stories which range from the familiar to the unusual, from the bitter to the sweet, from gentle to hard - a brilliant stir fry of storytelling.

The man in black: macabre stories from Fear on Four. 1990. 7v.

The master of the macabre, the Man in Black, has compiled twenty-five dark stories for uneasy reading. There are spine chilling tales of the supernatural by writers, past and present, such as Roald Dahl, John Wyndham, W.W. Jacobs, Elizabeth Bowen, Bram Stoker, Graeme Fife, Robert Westall, E.F.Benson, Stanley Ellin and W.F. Harvey.

Same difference. 1998. 2v. UK Loan only.

Eight original stories with lesbian or gay characters by award-winning and acclaimed writers, such as Anne Fine and Margaret Mahy.

Alcott, Louisa May.

Behind a mask: the unknown thrillers of Louisa M. Alcott. 1976. 7v. UK Loan only.

She wrote them because she needed money, she was angry at the plight of women, and they provided an outlet for her dramatic inclinations.

Aldiss, Brian W.

Supertoys last all summer long. 2000. 4v. UK Loan only.

The title story tells the tale of a young boy who, whatever he does, cannot please his mother. He is puzzled by this, not realizing that he is an android, a cunning construct of artificial intelligence - as is his one ally, his teddy bear. .

Archer, Jeffrey.

To cut a long story short. 2000. 3v. UK Loan only.

This is a collection of 14 stories, featuring such scenarios as a study of seven men, each of whom believes he should have the job of the man immediately above him, and a Henry Moore statue that disappears and reappears in a different form.

Ashley, Michael.

The mammoth book of extreme fantasy to the ultimate limit. Coming soon.

A selection of 25 stories by the likes of Orson Scott Card, Paul Di Filippo, A. A. Attanasio, Michael Swanwick, Christopher Priest and Peter Crowther, arranged in ascending order of 'extremeness'.

Atwood, Margaret.

Wilderness tips. 1991. 5v.

A leathery bogman transforms an old love affair; a sweet gruesome gift is sent to the wife of an ex-lover; landscape paintings are haunted by the ghost of a young girl. This new collection of short stories reveals the many textures of contemporary life, and the logic of irrational behaviour.

Atwood, Margaret.

Moral disorder. 2006. 4v.

This book can be seen either as a collection of ten stories that is almost a novel or as a novel broken up into ten stories. It resembles a photograph album, a series of clearly observed moments that trace the course of a life, and also the lives intertwined with it - those of parents, of siblings, of children, of friends, of enemies, of teachers, and even of animals. And as in an album, times change: the 30s, the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, the 70s and 80s, the present time - all are here. The settings are equally varied: large cities, suburbs, farms, northern forests.

Auchincloss, Louis.

The anniversary and other stories. 1999. 2v. American Braille. UK Loan only.

In this book of short fiction, nine previously unpublished short stories explore the moral dilemmas of American high society as it focuses on individuals looking back over the course of their lives. Nine short stories depict a bygone era.

Ballard, J.G.

The complete short stories: volume 1. 2006. 17v.

This compilation brings together 96 short stories drawn from previous collections of Ballard's short stories, including The Voices of Time and War Fever, as well as four previously uncollected stories. The result is an overview of Ballard's development as a short-story writer, from the singing orchids of Vermilion Sands in Prima Belladonna, completed in 1956, to the millennial anxieties of Report from an Obscure Planet, written in 1992.

Barstow, Stan.

The glad eye, and other stories. 1984. 4v.

No review available.

Bates, H.E.

The wedding party. 1965. 2v.

No review available.

Binchy, Maeve.

Victoria line: Central line. 1993. 6v.

Millions of people travel on London's tube every day, yet we usually only give our fellow passengers a cursory glance. Maeve Binchy infuses the nameless people with stories to provide a cross-section of London life.

Blackwood, Caroline.

Good night sweet ladies. 1983. 2v.

Eccentric, bullying, reclusive, vain - each of the characters in this collection of stories is a tragi-comic victim of his or her own self-obsession. A starched hospital matron fears she has brought about a total collapse of discipline and morale on the wards when she makes one small exception to a petty rule. Passively promiscuous, the social worker in 'Taft's wife' observes his own compliance to his attempted seduction by the mother of an orphanage boy at a lunch to reunite the two. In 'Addy', a divorcee leaves her old and faithful dog while she dines out with a snobbish school friend. The once-dazzling and brilliant Olga descends each evening to blaze briefly in the ritual cocktail hour, while in 'Angelica' a retired actress plays out the last act of her heartless and flamboyant life in a Knightbridge cemetery.

Canin, Ethan.

The palace thief. 1994. 4v.

Ethan Canin presents a quartet of novellas. A painfully controlled man harbours a secret desire for uproar and risks his professional reputation on a foolish impulse. An

eccentric genius wins intelligence competitions and speaks in a private language. A middle-aged, divorced man tries to learn from his twenty-year-old son how to talk to women again. And in the title story, a teacher spots the seeds of corruption in a wayward student.

Capote, Truman.

Breakfast at Tiffany's and other stories. 2007. 2v. UK Loan only.

Holly Golightly is generally up all night drinking cocktails and breaking hearts. She hasn't got a past. She doesn't want to belong to anything or anyone, not even to her one-eyed rag-bag pirate of a cat. One day Holly might find somewhere she belongs.

Carter, Angela.

Black venus. 1985. 3v. UK Loan only.

Some are based on real people such as Jeanne Duval, and Edgar Allen Poe, with his face of a tragic actor. Unsuitable for family reading.

Cather, Willa.

The old beauty, and others. 1948. 2v.

3 short stories by the American writer best known for My Antonia. Included here are The Old Beauty, The Best Years and Before Breakfast.

Christie, Agatha.

Poirot investigates: short stories. 1924. 3v. UK Loan only.

The very first collection of superb short stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings.

Christie, Agatha.

The red signal and other stories. 2005. Coming soon.

Stories include The red signal, The wasp's nest, The house of lurking death, The affair at the bungalow.

Clark, Mary Higgins.

The Anastasia syndrome, and other stories. 1989. 2v. American Braille.

These five stories reflect the author's interest in parapsychology. In the title story, a woman romantically linked with a member of parliament must confront her past. In

"Terror stalks the class reunion", a student's obsession for his former teacher compels him to kidnap her and force her to marry him. In "Double vision", a psychopath stalks the twin sister of a girl he mistakenly killed.

Collins, Wilkie.

Sensation stories: tales of mystery and suspense. Coming soon.

The last stage coachman - A terribly strange bed - Nine o'clock! - The fourth poor traveller - The dream woman - the diary of Anne Rodway - A marriage tragedy - Who is the thief? - The clergyman's confession - Love's random shot.

Craig, Patricia.

The Oxford book of travel stories. 1996. 5v. American Braille. UK Loan only.

Patricia Craig defines travel stories as oriented to the actual act of travelling, rather than to the destination. This collection of over thirty such tales spans more than a century and includes works by Evelyn Waugh, Rebecca West, Edith Wharton, Anthony Trollope, Paul Theroux and William Trevor.

Dahl, Roald.

Kiss kiss. 1960. 5v. UK Loan only.

Eleven spine-tingling short stories each with a sting in the tail, from one of the most popular writers of the macabre. A flock of pheasants in a baby's pram, a taxidermist landlady who stuffs her guests, a solitary eye blinking in a white dish - unpredictable, shocking and amusing.

Dalby, Richard.

The Mammoth book of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories. 1995. 12v. UK Loan only.

This anthology contains the cream from the golden age of the ghost story, spanning the Victorian era from 1839 right up to the end of the Edwardian decade in 1910. Many of literature's greatest names are in this collection, and these masters promise delicious - and chilling - entertainment.

Daniel, Yuli.

This is Moscow speaking, and other stories. 1968. 2v.

No review available.

Davies, Andrew.

Dirty faxes: short stories. 1990. 4v.

In this collection, a middle-aged professor is confused when his cleaning lady offers an unusual service; a respectable writer's life is invaded by obscene communications from a rogue fax machine; a man loses his lover unexpectedly, only to find that she has left him a distressingly tactile souvenir. Even a computer print out can be infiltrated by alien parasites without warning.

Deaver, Jefferey.

Twisted: the collected stories of Jeffery Deaver. 2004. 6v.

A collection of short stories. In 'Beautiful' a former supermodel's stalker has followed her through retirement to her new small town home. The only thing that will end the nightmare is his death, or her own. In 'Without Jonathan' Marissa is about to go on the first date since she was married, with a man she found on the Internet. As she wonders whether she will ever truly fall in love again, the man she is going to meet is killing a woman on the other side of town...

Deighton, Len.

Declarations of war. 1971. 3v. UK Loan only.

Len Deighton's unfashionable compassion for soldiers and his almost pardoxical hatred of war was the theme of his previous book "Bomber". Here he expands and develops the idea that the strategies and machines of war push men into dehumanised, machine-like roles with which they are very ill-equipped to cope. A series of literary jump-cuts between actions as far apart as the Punjab and an S.A.C base in Vietnam takes you inside the minds of men facing the bizarre situations which

war produces.

Dexter, Colin.

Morse's greatest mystery, and other stories. 1994. 5v.

How can the discovery of a short story written by a beautiful Oxford graduate lead Chief Inspector Morse to her murderer? What awaits Morse and Lewis in Room 231 of the Ransdolph Hotel? Why does a theft at Christmas lead the detective to look upon the festive season with uncharacteristic goodwill and what happens when Morse himself falls victim to a brilliantly executed crime? This collection includes five ingenious cases for Morse, plus five other original tales.

Dickens, Charles.

Sketches by Boz : selections. 1836. 10v.

Sketches by Boz collected a rich and strange mixture of reportage, observation, fancy and fiction centred on the metropolis. It was Dickens's first book, published when he was twenty-four, and in it we find him walking the London streets, in theatres, pawnshops, law-courts, prisons, along the Thames, and on the omnibus, missing nothing, recording and transforming urban and suburban life into new terrain for literature. Sketches is a remarkable achievement, and looks towards Dickens's giant novels in its profusion of characters, its glimpses of surreal modernity and its limitless fund of pathos and comic invention.

Dinesen, Isak.

Seven Gothic tales: short stories. 1948. 7v. UK Loan only.

Romantics, adventurers, sensualists, melancholics and dreamers inhabit the bizarre and exotic world conjured up in these seven intricately interwoven tales, whose settings range from Tuscany and Elsinore, to a dhow on its way from Lamu to Zanzibar. Proclaimed a masterpiece on its publication in 1934, this collection is shot through with themes of love and desire - from the maiden lady who now believes herself to have been the grand courtesan of her time, to the Count whose wife is so jealous that she cannot bear him to admire her jewels, and Lincoln Forsner, an Englishman whose search for a woman he met in a brothel leads him into many strange adventures.

Disher, Gary.

Straight, bent and Barbara Vine. 1998. UK Loan only.

The "straight" stories in this collection are traditional, the "bent" are subversive, making fun of the crime genre and the craft. The "Barbara Vine" stories are psychological - a conservator restoring a Venice crypt suspects that he's been

implicated in a murder. A collection of short stories which are traditional, subversive and psychological.

Doyle, Arthur Conan.

Tales of twilight and the unseen. 1922. 3v. UK Loan only.

No review available.

Duncker, Patricia.

Seven tales of sex and death. 2004. 4v.

These stories offer a glimpse into various worlds inhabited by mysterious stalkers, war-scarred drifters, menacing assassins, or else bereft of people altogether; worlds where the perverse and permissive are rendered acceptable and the unimaginable has become the everyday.

Durrell, Gerald.

Marrying off Mother, and other stories. 1992. 4v.

"All of these stories are true or, to be strictly accurate, some are true, some have a kernel of truth and a shell of embroidery. Some were my own experiences, others were told to me and I appropriated them for my own purposes, which bears out the saying: 'Never talk to an author if you don't want to appear in print'." (Author).

Enright, Anne.

Taking pictures. 2008. 3v.

From Dublin to Venice, from an American college dorm to a holiday caravan in France, these are stories about women stirred, bothered, or fascinated by men they cannot understand, or understand too well. Enright's women are haunted by children, and by the ghosts of the lives they might have led - lit by new flames, old flames, and flames that are guttering out. A woman's one night stand is illuminated by dreams of a young boy on a cliff road, another's is thwarted by a swarm of somnolent bees. A pregnant woman is stuck in a slow lift with a tactile American stranger, a naked mother changes a nappy in a hotel bedroom, and waits for her husband to come back from the bar.

Erskine, Barbara.

Encounters. 1992. 5v.

These short stories illustrate Barbara Erskine's extraordinary talent for capturing the spirit of a place and drawing us into the hearts and minds of her characters. There are humour, thrills and sentiment in this delightful collection.

Francis, Dick.

Field of 13: short stories. 1998. 6v.

This is a brilliant collection of thirteen short stories, written by the Master of Crime.

Ranging from the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham to Churchill Downs in America, each of the stories contains an array of five-star Dick Francis characters, a brilliant plot to marvel over and an ingenious sting in the tail to gasp over.

Glanville, Brian.

The thing he loves, and other stories. 1973. 3v.

Short stories about the sporting life.

Graves, Robert.

Collected short stories. 1965. 5v.

The thirty stories in this collection were written between 1924 and 1962, and, according to the author, "Most of them, including the more improbable one, are true though occasional names and references have been changed." Reflecting Mr Graves's impish irreverence, glorious imagination and diversity of interests, the stories range from an illegal Christmas truce in the trenches of World War I to silly games and sudden death in the Antarctic and tenement life in First Century Rome.

Green, Jane.

This Christmas. 2005. 7v.

This is a collection of three short stories from three authors all with a Christmas theme.

Guterson, David.

The country ahead of us, the country behind: stories. 1996. 3v. UK Loan only.

This collection of short stories is mainly narrated by older men, recounting the wrong turns and lost opportunities that have occurred in their lives. They remember their mistakes, their lies and their first loves with intense and lingering recollections.

Hardy, Thomas.

A changed man, and other tales. 1913. 6v. UK Loan only.

The person who, next to the actors themselves, chanced to know most of their story, lived just below 'Top o' Town' (as the spot was called) in an old substantially-built house, distinguished among its neighbours by having an oriel window on the first floor, whence could be obtained a raking view of the High Street, west and east, the former including Laura's dwelling, the end of the Town Avenue hard by (in which were played the odd pranks hereafter to be mentioned), the Port-Bredy road rising westwards, and the turning that led to the cavalry barracks where the Captain was quartered. Looking eastward down the town from the same favoured gazebo, the long perspective of houses declined and dwindled till they merged in the highway across the moor. The white riband of road disappeared over Grey's Bridge a quarter of a mile off, to plunge into innumerable rustic windings, shy shades, and solitary undulations up hill and down dale for one hundred and twenty miles till it exhibited itself at Hyde Park Corner as a smooth bland surface in touch with a busy and fashionable world.

Hemingway, Earnest.

The first forty-nine stories. 1944. 9v. UK Loan only.

A collection of Hemingway's first forty-nine short stories including 'Up in Michigan', 'Fifty Grand', and 'The Light of the World', and the Snows of Kilimanjaro, Winner Take Nothing'and Men Without Women collections.

Hill, Reginald.

Pascoe's ghost, and other brief chronicles of crime. 1979. 3v. UK Loan only.

Murder, theft, extortion and rape all figure in these brief chronicles of crime, the moods of which range from the merry to the macabre.

Hill, Susan.

The boy who taught the beekeeper to read and other stories. 2004. 2v.

A young school boy visiting his aunt's country house finds company and friendship with the gentle beekeeper and begins teaching the man to read, so that it seems nothing can ever intrude upon their closeness. A young country girl fights against becoming a downtrodden domestic skivvy like her dead mother, while another young girl reaches a delicate understanding with an elderly blind man as they walk along the

beach together. On another beach a more sinister plot unfolds as a gang of boys plans a most wicked deed.

Howard, Elizabeth Jane.

We are for the dark: six ghost stories. 1951. 4v. UK Loan only.

No review available.

Islam, Syed Manzurul.

The mapmakers of Spitalfields. 1997. 2v.

Written between realism and fantasy, acerbic humour and delicate grace, these stories, set in both Bangladesh and the East End of London, explore the lives of exiles and settlers, traders and holy men, transvestite actors and the leather-jacketed, pool-playing youths who defended Brick Lane from skinhead incursion.

Jones, Stephen.

The Mammoth book of best new horror. 1998. 11v.

The multiple award-winning "Best new horror" series has firmly established itself as the world's premier annual, showcasing the talents of the very best writers working in the horror and dark fantasy field today. Stephen Jones has chosen the very best stories and novellas of supernatural terror and psychological fear, by some of the most acclaimed authors in the genre. The internationally acclaimed annual collection of the bloodcurdling best in horror and dark fantasy, showcasing the very best writers working in the genre today.

Joyce, James.

Dubliners. 1950. 3v.

Terence Brown suggests that "this book is rooted in an intensely accurate apprehension of the detail of Dublin life". The author discerns the truths of human experience in a defeated, colonial city.

Kafka, Franz.

Metamorphosis, and other stories. 1961. 3v.

Metamorphsis is one of the most terrifying stories ever written. A man wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Kafka describes his reactions and the reactions of his family- at first horrified, then kind, wrathful, despising and finally negligent. This haunting parable on human reaction to suffering and disease has already become a classic.

King, Stephen.

Skeleton crew: short stories. 1985. 12v. UK Loan only.

Skeleton Crew is King's second collection of short stories. Stories include The Monkey, Here there be Tygers, The Mist, The Wedding Gig, Word Processor of the Gods.

King, Stephen.

Everything's eventual: 14 dark tales. 2003. Coming soon.

In this eerie, enchanting compilation nothing is quite as it seems. In the blockbuster e-book 'Riding the Bullet' Alan Parker is hitchhiking through Maine to visit his ailing mother when he is picked up by a living corpse in a Mustang. In 'In the deathroom' a reporter is tortured for information. With this eerily dark collection of fourteen short tales expect the unexpected......

Kipling, Rudyard.

Plain tales from the hills. 1982. 5v.

This volume contains a selection of powerful stories about life in British India.

Kress, Nancy.

The aliens of earth. 1993. 3v. American Braille. UK Loan only.

This collection of science fiction and fantasy stories includes "The price of oranges", a time travel story; "In a world like this", a tale that presents a nightmarish erosion of reality; and "The battle of Long Island", about an alternate universe. "People like us" and "Cannibals" are concerned with aliens. .

Kureishi, Hanif.

The body and other stories. 2002. 5v.

What if you were middle-aged and were offered the chance to trade in your sagging flesh for a much younger and more pleasing model? This is the situation in which one character in this collection of stories finds himself. Taking the plunge, he embarks on an odyssey of hedonism but soon has regrets.

Lee, Tanith.

Dreams of dark and light: the great short fiction of Tanith Lee. 1986. 5v. American Braille. UK Loan only.

Twenty-three tales of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and the macabre, many of them conveying a hauntingly dark sensibility.

Lawrence, D.H.

Three novellas. 1923. 4v.

The ladybird probes the relationship between a Scottish soldier in occupied Germany and the woman he finds fascinating; The fox charts the influence of a wounded prisoner upon the wife of an English officer; The Captain's doll looks at cunning and how it disrupts two women.

Little, Melanie.

Confidence: stories. 2003. 2v. UK Loan only.

This collection contains ten stories which explore and explode the concept of confidence in all of its contradictory meanings, suggesting a very fine line between trust and treachery. A Grade 6 schoolgirl grapples with having a left leg that is four inches longer than her right one; a father once bursting with temerity descends into gambling addiction, and a disgruntled saleswoman induces self-inflicted highway

robbery.

Lynn, Johnathan.

The complete Yes Minister: the diaries of a cabinet minister by the Right Hon. James Hacker MP. 1984. 13v.

In 1983 the BBC TV series "Yes Minister" became the first programme ever to win the British Acadamy award for the Best Comedy Series for three years running. By reinterpreting the stories as Jim Hacker's political diaries (augmented by Sir Humphrey Appleby's papers and a good helping of new material) the authors have produced an equally hilarious book.

McCarthy, Karen.

Kin: new fiction by black and Asian women. 2003. 3v. UK Loan only.

The presence of black and Asian people in the UK has altered the nation in so many ways that British culture is now one of fusion. Against this backdrop, "Kin" brings together a range of new literary talent who offer stories about mothers, sisters, lovers, best friends and brides to be. The authors in this anthology are Jamika Ajalon, Francesca Beard, Donna Daley-Clarke, Krishna Dutta, Diana Evans, Barbara Graham, Amanthi Harris, Heather Imani, Sharon Jennings, Kalbinder Kaur, Shiromi Pinto, Ranbir Sahota, Nicola Sinclair, Saradha Soobrayen and Gemma Weekes.

Malzberg, Barry N.

The best time travel stories of all time. 2003. 6v.

A collection of classic time-travel stories, included are such authors as Poul Anderson, Philip K. Dick, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress and Robert Silverberg.

Manby, Chris.

Girls' night out, boys' night in. 2001. 10v.

This title contains thirty stories that should appeal to male and female alike. "Girls' Night Out" introduces female authors, including Josie Lloyd and Kathy Lette. "Boys' Night In" features authors such as Mike Gayle, and Emlyn Rees.

Mitchison, Naomi.

Images of Africa. 1980. 2v. UK Loan only.

Stories from Botswana and Zambia.

Moss, Steve.

The world's shortest stories. 1998. 2v. UK Loan only.

A collection of short stories - each one just 55 words long.

Munro, Alice.

Selected stories. 1996. 12v.

Alice Munro's stories look beneath the facade of everyday lives, the pain and promise, loves and fears of apparently ordinary men and women - like Rose and her indefatigable stepmother Flo, or the women in the turkey-gutting shed, Mr Stanley the unlikely Willa Cather scholar, a Victorian poetess, lunch guests and lovers, enemies and old friends, adulterers and librarians - all of whom she renders extraordinary and unforgettable.

Murakami, Haruki.

The elephant vanishes. 2001. 5v.

In these haunting, hilarious stories the author makes a determined assault on the normal. A man's favourite elephant simply vanishes; a couple suffering midnight hunger pangs hold up a McDonalds; and a woman finds she is irresistible to a green monster that burrows through her garden.

Noon, Jeff.

Pixel juice: stories from the avant pulp. 1998. 5v.

Pixel juice is the collected outpourings of an overactive mind. A selection of fifty stories from Jeff Noon's head, each one strange, telling, disturbing, or sometimes just plain weird. .

O'Brien, Edna.

A fanatic heart. 1985. 8v. UK Loan only.

Most of the stories in this collection are set either in the villages and countryside of Western Ireland, where the author grew up, or in London, where she lived for many years. Love and loss are the prevailing themes.

Owen, William.

Strange Scottish stories. 1985. 2v. UK Loan only.

Supernatural tales from the firesides of the Scottish Highlands adapted and abridged by William Owen.

Packer, Z.Z.

Drinking coffee elsewhere. 2004. 3v.

Drinking coffee elsewhere" is a collection that explores what it is to be human. Never neatly resolved, these provocative and unforgettable stories resonate with honesty and wry humour and introduce us to a major new author.

Pilcher, Rosamunde.

The blue bedroom, and other stories. 1991. 5v. UK Loan only.

The title story of this heart-warming collection centres on Emily, a gawky fourteen-year-old. Emily longed for things to be as they were, but when her stepmother started to give birth, a month early, she had to take charge and look after her. The time for looking back had gone. This is the first collection of Rosamunde Pilcher's stories with their extraordinary blend of love, heartbreak and joy. The settings range from the suburban: a middle-aged mother confronting the emptiness of her life and finding the key to a new contented fulfilment, to the exotic: sun-drenched memories of the British Raj fifty years ago encompassing the snobbish rigidity of the time and how a social pariah came to bring one girl a precious and lasting gift.

Rankin, Ian.

Beggar's banquet. 2002. 6v.

These short stories stretch from suburban murders of loved ones to the sinister workings of a serial killer's mind and from a bent cop, with a terminal approach to his work, to a hit man who gets more than he bargained for in a crowded fairground.

Raspe, Rudolph Erich.

The travels and surprising adventures of Baron Munchausen. 1998. 2v. American Braille. UK Loan only.

A collection of tall tales first published in 1785. Raspe, a rogue and a rascal, embellished the memoirs of the real Baron Munchausen, a cavalry officer in the Russian army, and created a mythical character. In one adventure, when hunting in Ceylon, the Baron, attacked by a lion - with a lake on one side and a precipice on the other - is saved when the lion jumps over his head and into the mouth of a crocodile.

Read, Miss.

Tales from a village school. 1994. 2v. UK Loan only.

Forty delightful stories about life as a village school teacher. The author captures the scenes of village school life with humorous understanding and a love of nature.

Rendell, Ruth.

The new girlfriend and other stories. 1985. 2v. UK Loan only.

A collection of sinister short stories, from "The New Girl Friend's" murderous confusion of identities to "The Convolvulus Clock" where each tick is the tick of guilt. A collection of sinister short stories.

Sayle, Alexei.

The dog catcher. 2001. 4v. UK Loan only.

This collection of short stories captures the morals and absurdities of our so-called "cool" culture, populated with characters as recognizable as they are memorable

Schlink, Bernhard.

Flights of love. 2002. 3v.

A collection of seven stories all about love - why people are drawn to it and why some run away. The author in turns shows us love as desire, love as confusion, love as a quick affair, love as a drastic life-changing rebellion, love as a force of habit, love as self-betrayal.

Sharp, Kerri.

Pandora's box: an anthology of erotic writing by women. 1996. 4v. UK Loan only.

This anthology of erotic writing written by women for women, brings together extracts from various titles in the series. It also contains new material written specifically for this book. Contains sex scenes.

Sharp, Kerri.

The best of Black Lace 2: an anthology of erotic writing by women. 2002. 4v.

An arousing selection of extracts taken from various Black Lace novels. This book celebrates the series from its steamy scenes to the debate on female sexuality. Contains sex scenes.

Sillitoe, Alan.

The second chance: and other stories. 1981. 3v.

Short stories of human defences and oddities.

Swanscombe, Wendy.

Six of the best. 2003. 5v.

Contains six short stories. A brothel that is a cathedral of fur. The girl with the mid-ass touch. Clinical doctors with hidden agendas, and a visit to a very special kind of sperm bank. Six short stories that mix surreal debauchery with sadean depravity. Six secret despatches smuggled home from the erogenous zones, six amazing strokes of the white whip from Wendy Swanscombe, a mistress of the surreal and bizarre.

Contains sex scenes.

Taylor, Catherine.

Teddy bear stories for grown ups. 1994. 4v. UK Loan only.

A miscellany of fiction and fact celebrating our enduring fondness for teddy bears. Includes stories by Jane Beeson, Elisabeth Beresford, Rebecca Fraser, Allan Frewin Jones, Alan Hackney and William Trevor.A miscellany of fiction and fact

celebrating our enduring fondness for teddy bears.

Trevor, William.

Family sins & other stories. 1990. 3v. UK Loan only.

Short stories based on various aspects of the human condition - the casualties of bereavement, the comic foibles of human nature, the poverty of life without love and the suffocating compromises made for perceived gain.

Ustinov, Peter.

Add a dash of pity. 1959. 4v.

Eight of the master storyteller's finest pieces.

Walker, Alice.

In love and trouble: stories of black women. 2v.

These stories are Alice Walker's tributes, moving, angry and loving by turn, to the black women of the rural American South in which she grew up. They tell of a mother's pain for her burn-scarred daughter; of Roselily, married at last after four

children, uncertain whether she is trapped or freed; of the teenager mutilated by a crazed father, who remembers the destruction of his beloved sister by a white man, long ago.

Warner, Marina.

The mermaids in the basement: stories. 1993. 4v.

Noah's daughter-in-law; the Queen of Sheba; Susannah who was spied on by the Elders; Ariadne, castaway by Theseus and rescued by Bacchus; a 19th-century anorexic, and 20th-century Kate who, like Pharaoh's daughter, finds a baby in a basket - these are among the voices overheard in this collection of stories.

Weldon, Fay.

Polaris and other stories. 1985. 4v.

Twelve short stories ranging from the wilds of Scotland in "Polaris", where sub-mariner, Timmy, conducts his uneasy marriage, to far away Tasmania in "Oh Mary Don't You Cry Any More" with the strong southern winds bearing away both hope

and grief. In "Christmas Lists" the compulsion to make lists takes over the life of the list-maker and everyday suburbia is viewed with a scurrilous elegance.

Welsh, Irvine.

The acid house. 1995. 6v.

The characters in this unsettling, shocking and very funny collection are often - on the surface - depraved, vicious, cowardly and manipulative, but their essential humanity is never undermined. Stereotypes are at once celebrated and destroyed as the protagonists find themselves on unfamiliar ground.

Whipple, Dorothy.

After tea, and other stories. 1941. UK Loan only.

No review available.

Wodehouse, P.G.

Very good, Jeeves! 1930. 4v.

Further adventures of disaster-prone Bertie, saved at every turn by the peerless Jeeves. He is not the only beneficiary of Jeeves' attentions. Bingo Little has cause to be grateful in the affair of the marooned Cabinet Minister, and Sippy Sipperley, persecuted by his former headmaster. Tubby Glossop finds Jeeves invaluable when pursuing Cora Bellinger, and Bertie's fat Uncle George has a close call. Even the dog McIntosh is returned to Aunt Agatha through Jeeves.

Compiled February 2009

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