Introduction by Jonathan Taylor At the ferocious climax of Poe’s story ‘Hop-Frog’ (1849), the central character – a ‘court jester’ who is...

Introduction by James Morrison You are born in Prague 1883, a Jewish German Bohemian in Austria-Hungary. You are lonely, an isolated man....

Introduction by Krishan Coupland As with many cultural artefacts, my first experience of the general idea behind W W Jacobs’s superb...

Introduction by Amy Cipolla Barnes. “Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars.” When you...

Introduction by Cheryl Pappas. I’ve always been captivated by this parable by Kafka. A man is in a cage at the circus, on display for his...

Introduction by Ailsa Cox Katherine Mansfield’s writing is an inspiration for me, because her style is so highly charged emotionally and...

Introduction by JL. Bogenschneider. The influence of Edgar Allan Poe’s philosopher-detective – C. August Dupin – and his investigation...

Introduction by Melissa Fu. When Tom invited me to share a classic short story, after much deliberation, I chose Virginia Woolf’s 'Three...

Introduction by Gaynor Jones. Raised on a diet of Stephen King, Clive Barker and 80s Slasher films, I consider myself fairly scare-proof....

Introduction by Sophie Haydock. 'The IOU' by the American author F Scott Fitzgerald was written more than a hundred years ago – in 1920,...

Introduction by Ben Pester This is a story about dreams as premonitions. The narrator repeatedly dreams that he arrives at a large...

Introduction by Amanda Huggins. The necklace in Maupassant’s story is beautiful. To Mathilde, it represents everything she wants and...

Introduction by John O'Farrell Today we only remember Jerome K. Jerome for the wonderful Three Men In A Boat and although the following...

Introduction by Vicky Grut. Kate Chopin (1850 - 1904), lived in Louisiana and much of her early writing drew on her years in the...

Introduction by Chloe Wilson. Imagine that, one day, your nose not only vanished from your face, but then ascended to a higher social...

Introduction by Adrian Duncan. Back in 2008 or so, when I turned thirty, I began attending creative writing classes in Dublin. I'd been...

Introduction by Jo Lloyd. I only read Dorothy Edwards for the first time quite recently. For years, when people mentioned her, I had...

Introduction by Sam Reese. We tend to imagine the short story as a neat, trim form. Well-organised. Self-contained. Katherine Mansfield’s...