Philip Hensher's writing is characterized by an ironic, knowing distance and an icily precise skewering of pretension and hypocrisy, often exploring human relationships and social strata. His historical novels echo the rhythms and language of folk tales while playfully engaging with narrative forms. Hensher's distinctive voice and keen observations make his work a significant contribution to contemporary British literature. Beyond his fiction, he is a respected critic and essayist, bringing a sharp intellect to literary discourse.
Published to accompany the exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 15 June - 25 September 2005, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Sunderland, 6 October - 27 November 2005, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, 17 December 2005 - 12 March 2006.
'Excellent, entertaining and ingenious ... from Oscar Wilde to Arthur Conan Doyle, this fine anthology celebrates one of the richest moments in Britain's literary history' Sunday Times The quarter century or so before the outbreak of the First World War saw an extraordinary boom in the popularity and quality of short stories in Britain. Fuelled by a large new magazine readership and vigorous competition to acquire new stories and develop the careers of some of our greatest writers, these years were ones where the normal rule-of-thumb (novels sell, short stories don't) was inverted. This was the era of Sherlock Holmes, of Kipling's most famous stories, of M. R. James, Katherine Mansfield and Joyce's Dubliners. Some of the greatest writers of the period - particularly Conrad and James - found that the effort that went into their shorter works was more rewarded during their lifetimes than their now famous novels. Writers such as Mansfield, Chesterton, Beerbohm, Lawrence and Saki produced some of their greatest work. Short stories also provided a brilliant medium for experiment, and this generous and endlessly entertaining anthology includes fascinating examples of writers as varied as Rebecca West, James Joyce, H.G. Wells and Wyndham Lewis experimenting with what it was acceptable to write and how you could write it.
This is the first anthology capacious enough to celebrate the full diversity and energy of its writers, subjects and tones. The most famous authors are here, and many others, including some magnificent stories never republished since their first appearance in magazines and periodicals. The Penguin Book of the British Short Story has a permanent authority, and will be reached for year in and year out. This volume takes the story from the 1920s to the present day.
'Sometimes - not often - a book comes along that feels like Christmas. Philip Hensher's timely, but timeless, selection of the best short stories from the past 20 years is that kind of book. His introduction is as enriching as anything that has been published this year' Sunday Times 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. Includes short stories by A.L. Kennedy, Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jackie Kay, Graham Swift, Jane Gardam, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman, Martin Amis, China Miéville, Peter Hobbs, Thomas Morris, David Rose, David Szalay, Irvine Welsh, Lucy Caldwell, Rose Tremain, Helen Oyeyemi, Leone Ross, Helen Simpson, Zadie Smith, Will Self, Gerard Woodward, James Kelman, Lucy Wood, Hilary Mantel, Eley Williams, Sarah Hall, Mark Haddon and Helen Dunmore.
"An anthology of stories set in Berlin, by both German and non-German writers, from across the past century"--
'Byatt has contrived a masterly ending to a fine work; intelligent, ingenious and humane, Possession bids fair to be looked back upon as one of the most memorable novels of the 1990s' Times Literary Supplement
A novel based on the British experience in Afghanistan in the 1830s. It has at its heart the encounter between West and East as embodied in the complex relationship between the leader of the initial British expeditionary party, and the wily, cultured Afghani ruler.
The award-winning author of "The Mulberry Empire" presents a sweeping chronicle of ordinary lives that are profoundly shaped by both the subtleties of everyday experience and the larger forces of history.
'It's the book you should give someone who thinks they don't like novels ... Here is surely a future prizewinner that is easy to read and impossible to forget' Melissa Katsoulis, The Times The things history will do at the bidding of love
‘A brilliantly conceived and audacious novel from one of our most consistently intelligent and beguiling writers’ William Boyd ‘Surefooted and emotionally generous … A serious achievement’ Guardian ‘Masterful’ Telegraph
