The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story

by Philip Hensher (Editor)

A spectacular treasury of the best British short stories published in the last twenty years

We are living in a particularly rich period for British short stories. Despite the relative lack of places in which they can be published, the challenge the medium represents has attracted a host of remarkable, subversive, entertaining and innovative writers. Philip Hensher, following the success of his definitive Penguin Book of British Short Stories, has scoured a vast trove of material and chosen thirty great stories for this new volume of works written between 1997 and the present day.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Anthologies, British Literature, Short Story Collection

414 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2018

About the author

Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.[1] He has published a number of novels, is a regular contributor, columnist and book reviewer for newspapers and weeklies such as The Guardian, The Spectator , The Mail on Sunday and The Independent.
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishcouncil.org/...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.

You can find out more about Philip on his author page at 4th Estate Books: http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/phi...

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual mélange – three out-and-outers, 15 or so pretty interesting-ish ones and rather too many what were you thinking Philip Henshers.

The three greats :

Chapter 2 from All That Man Is by David Szalay – All that Man Is is one of those novels that are really 12 short stories rammed together, and I would be reading the novel if it was all going to be about this feeble French guy and his alarming discovery of an overpowering lust for fat sex (no other way of putting that) – I mean, that could be a problem

Funny Little Snake by Tessa Hadley – a snapshot of a very horrible childhood

The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon – a terrible accident recounted minute by minute, great horror story

Honesty compels me to say that if there was a boxing match between contemporary British short stories and contemporary American short stories the Americans would win with a knockout in Round One.

[Ross Jeffery · Rating 5 out of 5]

A.L. Kennedy – Spared – A chance encounter at a cheese shop sends a married man into the arms of another woman. An expertly told tale, fabulous prose and tantalising writing. I particularly loved the internal voice of our protagonist which was more of a projection of his inner yearnings and not the person he portrays to the rest of the world or come to that matter his wife. Spared builds masterfully to an astounding conclusion.

Tessa Hadley – Funny Little Snake – This story settles around the stepmother Valerie, her stepdaughter Robyn, husband Gil and his ex-wife Marise. This story is observational writing at its very best, there is one scene in particular that was breathtaking, where Valerie wakes to a snow covered London – the observations are astute and deftly written – Hadley is able to put across in her writing things that I’ve thought but never been able to verbalise. Funny Little Snake‘s impact comes from its characters, each strongly visualised and each fully developed. The one-up-man-ship that occurs in the final third of the story when Valerie meets Gil’s ex-wife is delightfully difficult reading, and what follows regarding Robyn is dealt with delicately – building to an deftly crafted, resonate conclusion. Perfectly balanced and a terrific raconteur.

Kazuo Ishiguro – Come Rain or Come Shine – The author of the brilliant ‘The Remains of the Day‘ brings us a hilarious tale which showcases what a talent Ishiguro is. Come Rain or Come Shine focuses on the lives of Charlie and Emily a married couple who have their fair share of internal problems. Charlie invites their friend Raymond to come and stay, to help give a distraction to their troubled lives – but we soon learn that Charlie is called away on ‘business’ he leaves Raymond with Emily. It’s great to see Ishiguro enter into comedy and he does a fabulous job, from when Raymond destroys the house trying to mimic the next door neighbours dog to when he is cooking a shoe is some of the best comedy I’ve read in years. It is so very fun and it contains one liners to die for!

Jackie Kay – Physics and Chemistry – There is something delightfully simple about Jackie Kay’s prose for this short story, it feels poetic in its construction and the tool of replacing the main protagonists names with what they teach was wonderfully simplistic but a masterstroke in resonating with the theme of the story. Physics and Chemistry focuses on the lives of two teachers who are in a relationship. They face growing prejudice and complaints from parents and the school swoop into action – sacking both Physics and Chemistry. The ending is powerful, showing that life continues in its various guises.

Graham Swift – Remember This – Is a brilliant tale about a recently married couple who under the pressures put on them by external forces decide that they both need to create a will. It’s a wonderfully light tale full of comedy and fabulous rich prose. A real delight and introduction of Swift’s writing to me as I’ve not read any of his works previously. So, I will be checking out more of his work in the future after this offering.

Jane Gardam – Dangers – This is a tale about a young boy and the love he has for his grandma, the dialogue in particular within this short story is what makes the story – both gripping and very insightful, which force the story to resonate with the reader that much more and it sticks with you a long while after reading.

Ali Smith – The Universal Story – I have to be honest here, I haven’t read an awful lot of Ali Smith’s work (I hang my head in shame), but after reading the quite brilliant short The Universal Story, I will be searching out more and more of her work. Smith’s storytelling is something to marvel at from the first paragraph to its breathtaking conclusion, it all seems effortless, and like nothing I have ever had the pleasure to read before. The story itself reminded me of the old song, I Knew an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly – with each part of the story leading on from something mentioned previously, which builds a multilayered strikingly different story written with a mastery in vocabulary and structure. A sheer joy to read and a wonderful story to discover! Highly recommended.

Neil Gaiman – Troll Bridge – Gaiman is a master of the form, someone that I love and he always has the ability in my opinion to craft magical brilliance with ease, and Troll Bridge is no different. It’s almost a re-imagining of the Billy Goat Gruff story about a troll that lives under the bridge. The story is great, full of youthfulness which immediately helps the reader engage in the story (as we were all young once). The story is broken into child, youth and middle age and builds with each passing passage of time that when the conclusion happens it blows you away! A real master at work!

Martin Amis – The Unknown Known – When this story started I had no idea where it was going, I thought it was some strange apocalyptic world, a science fiction led story. But Amis has done a remarkable job of making it all seem one way, but as the story develops, you find out that actually this could be the here and the now. The story follow the life and struggles of a fundamentalist planning an attack, it’s a story that really pulls the reader in and the main protagonist has such a distinct voice, lending itself superbly to the storytelling. There are also traces of humour littered throughout the story, which help compliment the work on show, adding to the overall ingeniousness of the story!

Peter Hobbs – Winter Luxury Pie – Hobbs details a delightful tale about families, agriculture and the changing of seasons, but the seasons of family are changing and so are their ideals and responsibilities. Our main protagonist is left a farm, his parents are too infirm to keep it running and his grandparents are the ones leaving it to him and his siblings. Hobbs explores deftly the fading dream of a family, and a future which doesn’t consist of farming or agriculture. It’s a tale of memories seeded in childhood and crops that are harvested in adulthood – which explores the pressures put on us by parents and how we cope or crumble beneath those pressures. I also thought when reading that the parents could be possibly looking upon their children as a crop to be harvested, as torch bearers and baton holders – but they (the children) long to be away from the world that constructed them and impacted them when they were young. It’s a wonderful story that explores family and the shifting of time.

Thomas Morris – All the Boys – This is an ingenious piece of storytelling. Being a man who has been on his fare share of stag-do’s and having had my own, this type of environment is rich pickings for the short story form, and Morris does a fabulous job at showcasing this event with brilliance and a masters touch. It is both believable and also devastatingly accurate (just me?) and the all the boys element is detailed brilliantly – with what happens on tour stays on tour! It becomes somewhat a cauldron of anxieties, fears and bravado – with each person on the stag-do bringing their own issues, their own turmoils to the table – which only seem to bubble over when they are drunk. Showcasing what men are like perfectly, that we don’t talk about our issues, that we gloss over our weaknesses and the things we don’t want people to know. Morris delves into the male psyche so well, that you have to stand back and appreciate what you’ve just encountered! Bravo!

David Rose – A Nice Bucket – This was another golden nugget of a story. We follow a new labourer. A grunt who’s just started working the roads with a gang of older, wiser and more weathered group of individuals. He’s only started working with them as their previous grunt had lost two toes due to some sort of accident. The key to this story, is that not a lot happens, it is in essence a story about a new bucket – but the gem of this tale is in the conversations, conversations had whilst doing some hard graft.

David Szalay – Chapter 2 (from All That Man Is) – This is a delightful meandering tale about a young man called Bernard, who at the start of the story we soon discover that he’s a bit of a waster. He’s employed by his uncle, but soon gets fired when he wants holiday leave after only just starting and it transpires he’s not asking he’s demanding, as his holiday is already booked. Bernard ends up getting fired and when going to see his friend about their holiday, finds out that his friend can’t go – so, Bernard has to make a tough choice, go on holiday by himself or scrape around at home. Luckily for us, he goes on holiday and it becomes a tale of awakening. It’s deliciously fun and laugh out loud funny and the observations and characterisations of Charmian and her mother Sandra are funny, horrendous and brilliant all at the same time! A thoroughly enjoyable read, not to be missed.

Irvine Welsh – Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It) – I was thrilled to see Irvine Welsh on the list of contributors to this collection, I love his work and the sheer unrelenting, I don’t give a damn style he offers so freely. With Catholic Guilt… Welsh brings the pain, in more ways than one, and is one of the standout stories of the collection in my opinion. It is brash, weird and offensive – what more could you ask for, I love Welsh’s work, whether long or short prose his words maim you!

Lucy Caldwell – Poison – A perfectly balanced story of unfrequented obsession told through the eyes of a woman looking back at her childhood and more importantly her school life, and her infatuation with her male teacher. A chance encounter leads to a reverie which builds to a masterful, powerful and heart-wrenching conclusion. I love Caldwell’s writing and this story is up there with the very best of hers and those collated in this collection. ‘Poison‘ is bold, daring and has a readability to it that is both addictive and beguiling – a stand out story from a brilliant anthology, a sheer masterpiece.

Rose Tremain – The Closing Door – This tale by Tremain follows the life of a mother saying goodbye to her daughter who is heading off to boarding school for the first time. In the deep sadness of this situation, Tremain treats us to some fabulous observational writing as our main protagonist follows other mothers who seem to be getting on with the lives that they live when the children are away – freed from the ball and chain of parenthood. What lives are these women itching to get back to now they are free from the shackles of parenthood. A thrilling read – poignant and delightfully paced.

Helen Oyeyemi – if a book is locked there’s probably a good reason for that, don’t you think – Oyeyemi gives us a gem of a story, that focuses on workplace politics. A great astute example of what happens when the office gets some much needed new blood. You may have worked in an office before, had a new member join your team – everyone goes on some sort of mission to impress the new employee, doing things they would never normally do, just trying to impress them or become a friend. That is until the varnish wears off and the idolised worker becomes a blot in the office that they would much rather wipe out of existence than befriend. Things pick up and unravel to an odd conclusion, which was handled deftly and expertly by Oyeyemi – a haunting and mesmerising tale!

Leone Ross – The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant – I love the style of this piece, it takes the ordinary and mixes it up into a cocktail of the weird and wonderful. It’s about love, a strange and consuming love about a woman who lives in a restaurant because she loves the chef, but he is married. It’s the only way she can get close to him and be with him. Because the chef, is married not to a woman, but to the restaurant – I told you it was weird. Ross does a tremendous job at making the weird accessible, and in including such a bold slice of the strange, it brings something fresh and exciting to the anthology, something as fresh and delectable, like a pomegranate seed on the tongue.

Helen Simpson – Every Third Thought – is a story about death, and more importantly our protagonists infatuation around the subject, which seems to consume her every third thought. From reading we soon understand that our protagonist is one hell of a hypochondriac – always fearing the worst, this is made unbearable when coincidences in the community and friendship groups (various ailments and illnesses) seem to be getting more frequent. She’s convinced that her time is coming, that the Grim Reaper is lurking behind every bump, lump, cough or odd coloured poo. Simpson delivers a terrific tale, which has some dark humour in it, which lifts the piece into the more comedic rather than depressing.

Zadie Smith – Moonlit Landscape with Bridge – I have to admit that Zadie Smith seems to have been one of those writers that I’ve failed to read (I know shoot me now!) – but after reading Moonlit Landscape with Bridge I’m going to be tracking down more of her work. In this story we follow the Minister for an impoverished country, as he flees after a natural disaster. We ride along with the Minister and his driver Ari as they head to the airport where he is about to get on a privately chartered plane and leave the devastation behind. But as he flees, he can’t help but feel called to help his people – madness ensues when they pick up an aid worker with a dark secret. Smith delivers a wonderfully told yarn and with the addition of this aid worker – creates a tense tale with delightfully executed prose, ensuring that its impact last long after the final pages. I now see what all the fuss is about and will be clambering to read more from Zadie Smith.

Will Self – The Rock of Crack as Big as the Ritz – It’s Will Self, so we know it’s going to be a crazy ride. This is no exception. Our protagonist trying to get away from the gang life he was stuck in flees his old life, he’s on the straight and narrow now – that is until he finds that there is something lurking within his basement. On deciding to do some work on his house he starts chipping away at some old brickwork in the basement, as the bricks fall down, they reveal a wall of crack – it appears, that the whole foundations of his house are made of the most purest crack ever to have been discovered. So, with the help of his brother, his mule in his new venture – he begins dealing. It’s a fabulously weird story and told with the all brilliance we expect from Will Self – the characterisations are the key to the piece and are deftly executed!

Gerard Woodward – The Fall of Mr and Mrs Nicholson – A short story writer is summoned to the palace of a governor to prepare a speech, which the governor and his wife hope will placate and diffuse the civil unrest that is beseeching the palace walls. As he awaits his instructions the riot grows, the gathered baying masses are swarming. But the tension within the office and palace is growing too, along with the nerves of the writer summoned to diffuse the growing animosity. There are so many fabulous threads that Woodward sews into this piece, and it’s a delight to read and beguiling to watch them all come undone.

James Kelman – justice for one – I wasn’t a huge fan of this story. I found the continuous stream of consciousness idea and the execution of it quite difficult to follow and fully comprehend. The story follows a baying crowd, a person at a march, a march leading towards a waiting army, of growing resentments and bubbling nervous angst. It just fell a bit flat for me and confused me no end – but there is still something within it which captivates the mind. I’ve read many stories where this tool has been used before and to great affect, but these are usually restricted to one or two people. Due to this story having many people within it, in such a short space of time, it just became a little confusing. But writing this now, I’m thinking…was that the point? A confusing rambling narrative, the swaths of bodies, and minds jostling together, a mixing of angst and peoples points of views…if so bravo. If not…I’m still slightly confused!

Lucy Wood – Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict – This story settles around the lives of Mary and Vincent Layton a couple who have moved to a house overlooking the sea, they have had their busy lives, their jobs, their children which are now grown and married and moved on. So, they move to enjoy life again! But once they’ve moved, they start their new life, but Mary is content on nesting, on creating a new nest for their new life. The thing is though, that this new nesting feeling…is becoming a hoarding issues. Lucy Wood’s collection The Sing of the Shore is one of the best collections I’ve read this year and this story in particular stuck out to me as being one of her best, so it’s great seeing it get the recognition it deserves by being included in this collection. You can read our review of The Sing of the Shore here. Lastly, Lucy Wood evokes landscapes and nature with remarkable precision and grace, providing a sensuous framing for each unfolding drama.

Hilary Mantel – The Clean Slate – Digging up the past can sometimes unearth things that we’ve tried so hard to bury, things that we didn’t or don’t want to find. This digging can shift light onto the things we’ve buried so far down we’ve forgotten what they look like. Mantel delivers a fine tale regarding a daughter and a mother trying to construct a family tree. Mantel as always does characters so well, and these are the cornerstones to the piece, they draw you in and won’t let you go.


Eley Williams – Fears and Confessions of An Ortolan Chef – Eley Williams is one hell of a writer, she’s exploded of late and when reading this tale, you can see why. It focuses on the things we covert, the things that are banned or restricted – something about them just becomes that more enticing and exciting. An assured short story that has an arrestingly absorbing quality about it – astoundingly pure and uniquely told. A great story of lives under the microscope.

Sarah Hall – Later, His Ghost – is Hall writing dystopian which she creates so effortlessly in her prose that you have no choice but to believe the construction. Here we find a man battling the elements – the wind ravaging everything in sight. He is one of the few survivors, and we follow him on a trek across what remains to find a specific present to gift for Christmas. It is nothing you’d expect. (from the collection Madame Zero – which we reviewed here)

Mark Haddon – The Pier Falls – this is another one of my favourite stories from the collection. Haddon writes in a frenetic break neck pace which only helps to serve the storytelling – it’s like a car crash and you can’t look away. The story details the failing of a pier and the ongoing drama and sudden aftermath as the pier begins to crumble into the sea…with all those lives stranded within the crumbling wood and steel. It’s a majestically told story and shows Haddon’s skills as an incredibly gifted raconteur, a powerful voice within this collection and his story quite literally crushes you!

Helen Dunmore – North Sea Crossing – I couldn’t think of a better way of closing this collection than that of Helen Dunmore. I have been a huge fan of her writing and North Sea Crossing is just one of those stories that has never left me. It tells the tale of father and son on a boat trip – detailing unflinchingly how much the son longs for his father to accept him. The story builds with each cutting remark, each put down and hurtful comment – it’s a brooding, poetic and immersive tale which showcases in all her glory the mastery Helen Dunmore had over the form.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really expected there to be some great short stories in this collection and there are – but only a few. Some sections could frankly be done away with altogether.

The whiny introduction is a little boring and self-serving, praising mediocre efforts and bemoaning book pricing structures.

The selection is frankly peculiar. I can't imagine how some of these tales made it into print at all, let alone into an edition like this, meant to showcase the best British short stories of the last fifteen years or so.

The division into simplistic theme headings LOVE, STORY, MEN, WOMEN, etc. is also a bit naff; and I note that the men’s section takes precedence over the women’s.

With the sole exception of the David Szalay story, the men’s section has no merit whatsoever. If you ever thought men are obsessed with sex and only connect on the most basic level, communicating with each other entirely through lame puerile banter, these stories confirm that to be the case.

Szalay’s contribution is a chapter from his novel All That Man Is and I feel like I have been the victim of the same kind of hospitality that the hotel featured inflicts on its guests, basic amenities compromised and luxury facilities undelivered (mouldy tomato slices the only thing left at the breakfast buffet with no staff to be seen). The protagonist observes the dining room disconsolately, ‘The buffet of congealed brown food. The microwave queue.’

But I would counsel readers against bothering with the stories from Will Self, Irvine ‘swearing is cool’ Welsh, Martin Amis and particularly James Kelman’s insubstantial offering.

The Tessa Hadley tale, ‘Funny Little Snake’ I found much better than her novels, with their entitled privileged denizens revolving around each other in sporadic conflict. I can completely visualise Marise, for instance, ‘spectacular in a long, low-cut white dress and white patent-leather boots: she had an exaggerated coarse beauty, like a film star blurred from being too much seen’.

There’s some good writing too in Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’, as a guest unwittingly discovers what his hostess really thinks about him. Mind you, he does describe her thus: ‘Her face, once so effortlessly graceful, was now distinctly bulldoggy, with a displeased set to her mouth’. That is how I look to myself in the mirror these days, unfortunately.

Naturally quality can be expected from Hilary Mantel, Rose Tremain, Sarah Hall and Mark Haddon. But all in all this certainly diverse collection carries contents that also range from the sublime to the plain dreadful, with a lot of ‘just ordinaries’ in between.

[Serafina · Rating 4 out of 5]

i didn't not enjoy any of these, they were all decent or good, which is impressive for a collection!! also liked the range of topics bc i usually wouldn't pick up a book of short stories about war and politics or catastrophic worlds (the women, men, love, and story sections are more my vibe) but i actually really enjoyed the stories in those sections

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, physically, with some excellent stuff inside. Not everything was a winner, but there was plenty that I enjoyed. My favourite stories include Tessa Hadley's Funny Little Snake, China Mieville's Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopedia and Zadie Smith's Moonlit Landscape with Bridge.

I loved David Szalay's aimless and sticky big chapter from All That Man Is. I need to read more from him, I think. But the Men section was the weakest overall. The Irvine Welsh story has to be at least two decades old and it feels it in every way. I hated it. I'm sick of Irvine Welsh. I never need to read any more Irvine Welsh in my entire life.

I liked everything, more or less, from the Women and Catastrophic Worlds sections, but especially Poison by Lucy Caldwell from the former and Fears and Confessions of an Ortolan Chef by Eley Williams from the latter. I have Eley William's own book of short stories waiting for me, and I think it's getting moved up the list as a consequence.

Someone as scared of piers as I already am should have skipped Mark Haddon's The Pier Falls, which tells you a lot of what you already need to know from the title. It is gripping and tense and horrible in its minuteness.

North Sea Crossing by Helen Dunmore was a unexpectedly perfect note to finish on but I think my favourite overall was Sarah Hall's apocalyptic Christmas story Later, His Ghost. I have previously enjoyed her other literary dystopian books, Burntcoat and Daughters of the North, too.

I'm rounding up, a little, but I feel ok about giving this four stars.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection features a wide variety of well-known and lesser-known authors, whose stories include elements of affection, dystopia, general uneasiness and vivid descriptions. It is helpfully divided into chapters featuring themes of Love, Story, Men, Women, War And Politics, Catastrophic Worlds and Envoi. I would recommend it to anyone that wishes to catch a glimpse of contemporary authors, a variety of genres, and a universally poignant narrative.
Personally, my favourite short stories in the collection have been:
Funny Little Snake by Tessa Hadley
Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro
Physics and Chemistry by Jackie Kay
All the Boys by Thomas Morris
Chapter 2 (from All that man is) by David Szalay
Catholic Guilt (you know you love it) by Irvine Welsh
The Closing Door by Rose Tremain

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good book to read when the weather has been so lovely as I was easily able to dip in and out of each story. I’d say 70% of the stories were good, while the other 30% was questionable. Good way to find new authors too!

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to caveat this review with the fact that short stories aren’t my type of read- they don’t give you long enough to understand a character or context, but I thought I’d give this a try.

As with all collections there were some really good stories and some average. I particularly enjoyed the last story in the collection by Helen dunmore and the story by Kazuo Ishiguro- come rain or come shine is a great read!!!

[Anne-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay collection as a whole - I tended to enjoy the female author’s stories more.
Didn’t like the “Men” section’s stories at all unfortunately. But really enjoyed the “War and Politics” and “Catastrophic Worlds” sections a lot.

Warning for a lot of homophobic language in Irvine Welsh’s “Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It)”.

[Charlotte Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

All round some good short stories, but also quite a few that I found to drag a bit.
Some favourites were 'Physics and Chemistry', 'Troll Bridge', and 'All That Man Is'

[Ignacio Peña · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a heck of a lot of really good stories in here.

[Thomas Goddard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit of a student of short stories. As a matter of fact, I'd already read a few in this collection. And it is a good collection. Not brilliant, but good.

Particular favourites were...

Spared by A. L. Kennedy

A man visits a cheese shop and meets a woman there. Despite being married he cannot help but pursuit this new path in search of happiness.


Funny Little Snake by Tessa Hadley

A stepmother has to rise to the challenge of caring for her husband’s young daughter who has travelled up for a visit. With her husband largely absent and disinterested the woman tires to forge some form of relationship. Things come to a head when she takes the child back home to her mother.


Remember This by Graham Swift

A couple, recently married, take a day to write a will. A formality of life but one that conjures up a strange feeling between them and bonds the pair in an intimate way. In the wake of the most beautiful day, the new husband settles down to write a letter for his new wife.

(This story really spoke strongly to me. It was so utterly and completely heart-wrenching.)


The Universal Story by Ali Smith

The story of a book and it’s life in many hands. And where that book ends up will be both poignant and ridiculous.

(This story seems to have false starts but that’s part of the magic of this interesting narrative style. It is playful and a little unsure of itself, purposefully. I really loved the concept of this one.)


Chapter 2 (from All That Man Is) by David Szalay

A young Frenchman journeys to Cyprus on a holiday. He was meant to travel with a friend, but they backed out at the last moment. There to seek out some hedonism, he bumps into a pair of unlikely new friends. From there, things get a little unsettling.

(I found this story really quite refreshing. It tells the truth of modern society and its isolated and naive male contingent. Uncertain, unprofessional, careless and lacking any true purpose the main character is caught up in the currents of the world and seems adrift in a really damaging way. It really made me fearful of the next few decades. What will happen when the parents of these man-babies die and leave them to fend for themselves? There will be nothing for them. They’ll piss away their inheritance on weed, video games and prostitutes. Then a large portion will kill themselves. This is my fear. I think it is well-founded.

Anyway, this story was so good that I’m going to seek out Szalay’s other works. I’m going to start with the novel that this story is from. I’m led to believe that it is a collection of short stories but they are laid out as chapters and it is a half-way novel and half-way story collection.)


Later, His Ghost by Sarah Hall

The strange post-apocalyptic tale of a man braving ceaseless winds.


The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon

A pier falls. I mean, it does what it stays on the tin.

(The beauty of this story lies in its tip-toeing along the line between literary fiction and horror. The descriptions of the events are told in a regiment of moments that break over you as you read, heaping on these gruesome and haunting images. Don’t read this one before visiting a seaside.)



Back To The Review


Therein lies my explanation for the rating. Seven good stories out of thirty. That's not a fantastic hit rate. There are three that I'd consider worth reading, but not fantastic (All The Boys by Thomas Morris, The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant by Leone Ross and North Sea Crossing by Helen Dunmore.) So, sadly only 1/3rd of this collection is worth reading. Which is, of course, just my opinion.

I feel like this was a little too ambitious. It seems like a personal project by the editor that fails in its attempt to accurately represent contemporary British short stories and instead succeeds merely in conveying Hensher's own tastes.

There are a number of short stories that I feel should have been included. And I reserve ultimate judgement because I don't know how the cogs turn on this sort of thing. Perhaps better stories had been requested and weren't available. Who knows?

Bottom line, I've bookmarked the stories I liked and will return to them. I'll also be seeking out more work by the writers I enjoyed. I'm gutted that the rest of the submissions, many contributed by famous names, are so bad and I'm going to avoid their work. So maybe it'll save me wasting money on Jackie Kay, Martin Amis, China Mieville, Peter Hobbs, Irvine Welsh, Zadie Smith, Will Self, and Hilary Mantel's work. So maybe it'll save me money.

If you like any of the above authors, make a case for them. I'd love to be proved wrong on them. Maybe they're not terrible.


Rating: 3.5

[Jim Manis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter purchased this book for me as a Christmas present while she was in London with her husband. One of the things she likes about London is the bookstores. And they contain many books that would be difficult to find in bookstores – such as they are – in the States.

This volume contains 30 stories that were previously published between the years 1997 and 2017 by authors ranging from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, as the cover states. American readers of literary fiction will at least be familiar with Zadie Smith. So, the book serves something like the purpose of Best American Short Story and the O'Henry Prize Story series.

One of the things I noticed about the stories is that there seems to be a darkness to them that I don't find with most American writers. Things, it seems, often end badly for the stoic Brits. (Foreshadowing Brexit?)

Another thing I noticed is that the sea plays a part in at least two of the stories. Although the United States has thousands of miles of shoreline, rivers seem to play a bigger part in American stories, while the sea rarely does, at least in contemporary fiction. In one of the stories, a pier collapses, and more than 60 people lose their lives. In another a father and son are traveling on an extremely large ferry, which rams a small sailing boat in an extremely dense fog.

Overall, the book is a nice addition to my collection of short story volumes and illustrates that the short story form is alive and well in Britain as it is in the U.S. even though readership is notably down in both countries.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting, well-collated collection of short stories. Not all of the were to my taste, but that's to be expected. I found the introduction very intelligent and well-thought-out. Henshaw put into words the vague feeling I had had about short story competitions.

I had already read two of the stories in single author collections (the Ishiguro and the Gaiman). Of the others my favourites were Kay's Physics and Chemistry, Caldwell's Poison, Wood's Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict and Haddon's The Pier Falls.

Generally, I thought the personal worked better than the political. I would rather have read a different Zadie Smith, for instance. Most of the stories in the War & Politics section were too long, though Self's was interesting.

Two of the stories are not really short stories and were unsatisfying as a result. Amis' is a WIP and felt baggy and incomplete, Szalay's is a novel chapter and, while the setting and character were enjoyable, could have done with context and lacked an ending.

Overall, it's a good collection of some high quality stories.

[Rockey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Hensher’s The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story is an anthology that ambitiously spans the landscape of British fiction over the past two decades. It attempts to capture the evolution of the short story as a form and the diverse voices that have shaped contemporary British literature. This collection serves as a follow-up to Hensher’s previous work, The Penguin Book of the British Short Story, a comprehensive two-volume anthology that presented British short stories from Daniel Defoe to Zadie Smith. In this new volume, Hensher narrows his focus to the past twenty-one years, bringing to light some of the most significant short stories written between 1997 and 2018.
The anthology is divided into thematic sections such as Love, Story, Men, Women, War and Politics, and Catastrophic Worlds, which provides a structured yet flexible framework for the reader to navigate through the various narratives. Hensher’s selections are an eclectic mix of well-known authors and emerging voices, offering a rich tapestry of contemporary British life and thought. The stories reflect a wide array of styles, themes, and perspectives, capturing the complexity and diversity of modern Britain.

Background and Selection
Hensher’s decision to create this anthology was partly motivated by his previous work and the reactions it garnered. His Penguin Book of the British Short Story, published in 2015, was a monumental collection that spanned 300 years and included both famous and obscure authors. However, it was not without its critics, some of whom felt that certain prominent contemporary writers were unjustly omitted. This new anthology seems to be, in part, a response to those criticisms, as it includes stories from several of the previously excluded writers, such as Helen Simpson, Rose Tremain, and A. L. Kennedy.
Hensher's approach to curating this collection is both meticulous and inclusive. He sought to represent the breadth of the contemporary British short story, encompassing a range of voices and styles that reflect the diversity of modern Britain. The anthology includes a mix of established literary figures like Kazuo Ishiguro and Neil Gaiman, as well as emerging writers who are making their mark on the literary scene. This balance between the established and the new provides a comprehensive snapshot of the current state of British short fiction.

Highlights of the Collection
One of the standout stories in the collection is Lucy Caldwell’s “Poison,” a poignant narrative that explores the complexities of teenage infatuation and the dangerous line between fantasy and reality. Caldwell's story is marked by its delicate handling of memory and its profound emotional resonance, making it a memorable contribution to the anthology.
Thomas Morris’s “All the Boys” is another highlight, offering a raw and insightful look at masculinity and the passage of time. Set during a stag weekend in Dublin, the story delves into the dynamics of friendship and the unspoken pressures that come with societal expectations of manhood. Morris’s narrative is both powerful and relatable, capturing the essence of contemporary masculinity with a deft touch.
Irvine Welsh’s “Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It)” stands out for its unflinching portrayal of violence and internal conflict. Known for his gritty and often controversial storytelling, Welsh does not disappoint with this tale, which plunges the reader into the dark recesses of the human psyche. The story’s visceral impact and uncompromising style make it a striking addition to the collection.

Critical Observations
While the anthology offers a diverse and compelling selection of stories, it is not without its limitations. Some readers may find the thematic sections a bit contrived, as they can sometimes force a cohesion that feels artificial. Additionally, the overall tone of the collection is predominantly melancholic, with many stories exploring themes of disappointment, loss, and unfulfilled potential. This pervasive sense of pessimism may not appeal to all readers, particularly those looking for more hopeful or uplifting narratives.
One of the more controversial inclusions is David Szalay’s “Chapter 2” from All That Man Is. The decision to include an excerpt from a longer work rather than a standalone short story has been met with mixed reactions. While Szalay’s prose is undeniably elegant, some may argue that the excerpt does not fully capture the essence of a short story and may feel incomplete out of context.
Another contentious piece is Martin Amis’s “The Unknown Known,” which, rather unusually, is accompanied by a note explaining that it is an unfinished story from a longer unpublished manuscript. This inclusion raises questions about the criteria for selection and the definition of a short story within the context of the anthology.

Conclusion
The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story is a significant contribution to the landscape of British literature, offering a panoramic view of the short story’s evolution over the past two decades. Philip Hensher has curated a collection that is both reflective and forward-looking, showcasing a range of voices and styles that collectively paint a vivid portrait of contemporary Britain. Despite some thematic and structural criticisms, the anthology is a valuable resource for anyone interested in exploring the depth and diversity of modern British fiction. It captures the essence of the times and provides a platform for both established and emerging writers to shine, making it a must-read for enthusiasts of the short story form.
In summary, while the collection may lean towards the melancholic and sometimes the obscure, it remains a testament to the richness of the British short story tradition and its capacity to capture the complexities of the human experience in concise and impactful ways. For those looking to understand the current state of British literature, Hensher’s anthology offers an essential and enlightening journey through the contemporary short story.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to discover some new authors, read some authors I have always meant to have read and read more short stories. This collection ticked all of those boxes for me.
Like all short story collections, I preferred some stories more than others. However, I have left wanting to read more short story collections and read the works of several authors included in this collection.

[Katheryn Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find that whenever I read collections of short stories, I'm left wondering why I don't read more of them. That was exactly how I felt after finishing this one.

The short stories in this anthology were all written between 1997 and 2018 (when the book was published), and are presented under the general headings of Love, Story, Men, Women, War and Politics, and Catastrophic Worlds. I think that these restrictions, and Philip Hensher's accompanying justifications of them, add nothing to the anthology, and my recommendation would be to skip the introduction, ignore the headings, and enjoy the stories. Although I did quite enjoy returning to Hensher's brief comments on a story after reading it.

My favourite stories were Physics and Chemistry by Jackie Kay, which tells the moving story of two teachers in a same-sex relationship; The Universal Story by Ali Smith, which explores the nature of storytelling itself; Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia by China Miéville, a metaliterary story which doesn't take itself too seriously; Poison by Lucy Caldwell, a clever little story about a student-teacher relationship; and The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon, which has an extraordinary impact for such a short piece.

I enjoyed most of the stories, and was particularly pleased by how memorable they were (which I always take as the sign of a good story). They are all beautifully written, and I loved losing myself in such an intricately created but short-lived world. The only story I didn't enjoy, and I mention it both because my review will do nothing to dent the reputation of its author and because I genuinely found it inappropriate (and think others may find it triggering), is The Unknown Known by Martin Amis, which takes as its subject terrorism.

[Thesincouch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started better than it ended but it really felt like Hensher curated this to his taste so kudos for that. So my favourite were:

- Funny Little Snake by Tessa Hadley: stepmother and stepdaughter focus. The stepmother already has an inkling that her recent marriage to her professor is going to end badly but still takes care of her stepdaughter as no one seems to be stepping up. I loved the movie What Masie Knew so this tracks.

- Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro: it gave what I wanted The Remains of the Day to give. Very much about melancholia and missed opportunities and time lost. A marriage in trouble and a
friend who comes to stay.

- Physics and Chemistry by Jackie Kay: the writing was great and the concept was amazing. These two high school teachers who live together and have a happy ending, unexpectedly.

- Troll Bridge by Neil Gaiman: a surprise. An exploration of toxic male ennui with fantasy.

- Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia by China Miéville: a horror one! Maybe my favourite in this collection? An entry in a medical encyclopaedia about a parasite that lives in the brain.

- The Closing Door by Rose Tremain: a mother sends her daughter to boarding school, to their unhappiness. The ending punched me in the face.

- if a book is locked there's probably a good reason for that, don't you think by Helen Oyeyemi: I love Oyeyemi's White is for Witching so I'm not surprised I loved this one. The writing is electric and riveting. About this woman who gets bullied to quit her job, from a coworker's POV, who wrote a diary for two years in high school.

- Fears and Confessions of an Ortolan Chef by Eley Williams: Intense. About a chef that cooks ortolan birds and their fractured relationship with their partner.

[Andrei Dumitrescu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of the 30 titles, I have enjoyed
(i) A.L. Kennedy - Spared (a clandestine relationship between a married man and an independent, single woman);
(ii) Tessa Hadley - Funny Little Snake (a young step mom's rescue of the neglected 9 y.o. step daughter);
(iii) Kazuo Ishiguro - Come Rain, Come Shine (an odd reencounter between a man and his best fried's wife whom he secretly fancied in college);
(iv) Graham Swift - Remember This (the story of a young married couple's experience while making their wills);
(v) Neil Gaiman - Troll Bridge (the eerie story of a man's middle life crisis);
(vi) Thomas Morris - All the Boys (the story of a bachelor party in Dublin);
(vii) David Szalay - Chapter 2 from "All That Man Is" (simple, yet captivating excerpt of a young man's lonely vacation in Cyprus);
(viii) Irvine Welsh - Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It) - the cynic story of a regular Joe being trapped in a unique purgatory upon his sudden death, where he needs to walk the Earth as a gay ghost buggering his old mates until he enjoys it.
(ix) Lucy Caldwell - Poison (a woman in her thirties recalls the high school prank she pulled to her attractive teacher that forever changed both their lives);
(x) Zadie Smith - Moonlit Landscape with Bridge (the story of a minister from a third world country escaping to civilisation while his country is affected by a cataclismic event);
(xi) Gerard Woodward - The Fall of Mr and Mrs Nicholson (the last day of a dictators' couple in a dystopian country as viewed by one of their favorite writers);
(xii) Mark Haddon - The Pier Falls (the shocking narative of an imagined collapse of Brighton's West Pier on a Summer day in 1970).

[Ingunn Bache · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one took a while to get through, mostly because the stories have been very hit or miss for me, which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. This anthology is divided into seven different categories: Love, Story, Men, Women, War & Politics, Catastrophic Worlds and Envoi.

If I was to choose my favourite short stories from each category it would be these:
- Love: 'Funny Little Snake' by Tessa Hadley and 'Physics and Chemistry' by Jackie Kay
- Story: 'Troll Bridge' by Neil Gaiman (perhaps my favourite of this entire anthology)
- Men: 'All the Boys' by Thomas Morris
- Women: 'Poison' by Lucy Caldwell
- War & Politics: 'The Fall of Mr and Mrs Nicholson' by Gerard Woodward
- Catastrophic Worlds: 'Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Derelict' by Lucy Wood and 'The Pier Falls' by Mark Haddon
- Envoi: 'North Sea Crossing' by Helen Dunmore (this was the only story in this category, but it was also one I really enjoyed)

There were also a lot of stories I disliked, which was a bummer. Some of them made me quite uncomfortable (such as Irvine Welsh's 'Catholic Guilt'), but that might have been the point.
All in all I would say this was an interesting read nonetheless, with works from a lot of different contemporary British authors. They've all been said to be the great although very different from one another, so someone's taste in writing will differ from others and influence which stories they like the most. Maybe someone else loves the stories I disliked and vice versa!

[Matt R · Rating 3 out of 5]

The absolute highlight for me was Irvine Welsh's short story. Absolutely hilarious.

"Poison" was really good. I was kept on edge wondering where the hell it was going to end up. I imagined all sorts of horrible possibilities and what transpired didn't disappoint.

The one about the pier was an experience. I started off quite bored with it but it just grew and grew into this fantastic horrorscape.

As for the rest...

A short story is only as good as its ending in my humble opinion.

A good third of these short stories ended very poorly, with either no ending or just a weak one that didn't justify all that came before it.

Two of the stories are incredibly short and I don't know why they feature in this collection.

Most were OK though. Good beginning, middle and end. Just nothing too memorable.

Bit of an odd collection really. I feel like they were chosen because of who the authors are rather than because they are groundbreaking pieces of writing.

Worth it for the Irvine Welsh one though.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor collection with some objectionably awful stories. A few good stories help this book somehow have any credibility. Interestingly, looking back over it, all the better stories are by lesser known authors.

A few observations: Stories written decades ago are not contemporary. Stories that read like bad outlines for BBC sitcoms are not for me. And stories by big names for the sake of inclusion exclude good writers.

The blurb on this book is completely misleading. There is no way I would suggest anyone can curl and enjoy this book.

I did discover a few new-to-me writers that I will seek out. I am glad they were given this opportunity to appear in an anthology, but at the same time it is a shame their excellent writing is in amongst less good work.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip Hensher’s two-volume Penguin Book of the British Short Story is to my mind the best currently available survey of the form in these islands over the last three hundred years. This new volume of stories published in the twenty-first century does an equally good job for the contemporary short story. The range and diversity of stories in this collection is staggering and Hensher has done a brilliant job in putting together such a rewarding and thought-provoking selection. There’s not a false note or dull entry among the thirty stories in the book. If you have any interest at all in contemporary fiction from the UK, whether or not you think of yourself as a fan of short stories, you really couldn’t do better than get hold of a copy of this excellent book.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 2018, 'The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story' is a collection of 29 short stories and one extract from a novel, all written in the 30 years leading up to the publication date. The quality varies - some are just excellent whilst and others are not and some have storylines that don't seem to go anywhere, or so it seemed to me. The intro mentioned the lack of platforms for short stories in modern times - clearly the excellent 'Troll Bridge' by Neil Gaiman does not fall into this category, as this is the third collection that I have found it in so far. I did enjoy reading this collection, but it was far from brilliant.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

One reviewer says of this "Each of these stories [...] tells us a secret about the things humans do".

The trouble is that far too many of the protagonists in these stories seem unrecognisably human, as if their author is wanting to prove how outrageous, original their thinking is. A couple I found unreadable (one where the writer himself had given up), too any were tedious, and very few would I wish to re-read.

Which is a disappointment and, had I not already learnt I do often like short stories; enough to have some fifty books of them on my shelf, would have put me off forever.

[Matt Fallaize · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly excellent selection of short stories demonstrating breadth and vitality, it's always possible to argue the case for one's own pet favourite writers, and always easy to complain about who's been left out, so I won't, what I will do is observe that this is a selection of largely superb stories. There was the odd one that wasn't my cup of tea, which is only to be expected, but lots to chew on.

[Vivian Stuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this collection of contemporary British short stories, not unlike a handful of jellybeans, there were some I didn't care for. With that said, I appreciated reading a variety of work and this book showcased authors I wouldn't have known otherwise.

These are some of the short stories I particularly enjoyed: Funny Little Snake, Physics and Chemistry, The Universal Story, All the Boys, if a book is locked

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very varied collection

Something for everyone here and a good way into what contemporary short story has to offer to a relative novice such as myself.

I definitely want to read more from the authors included that I have not read anything from before and enjoyed the stories from authors I have previously read in longer form as much as expected.

Just what you want from anthology.

[Cristina Arredondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all will make you feel a thing, but my personal favourites are:
- Funny little snake by Tessa Handley
- Troll bridge by Neil Gaiman
- All the boys by Thomas Morris
- Poison by Lucy Caldwell
- The woman who lived in a restaurant by Leone Ross
- The pier falls by Mark Haddon.

I was able to imagine every scene in these short stories, the level of detail was magnificent. Engage the reader with a novel is not easy, but with a short story is the hardest. They did it.