Short Stories

Talking Books

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

Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you
will then receive another one.

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

You can write to us at RNIB NLS, PO Box 173, Peterborough PE2 6WS
Alfred Hitchcock's A mystery by the tale. 1990. Read by Bruce Montague, 15 hours 44 minutes.
TB 9031.
A selection of 28 suspense stories, from authors such as Brandner, Lutz and Morice, for the
29th edition of the Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. TB 9031.

The big book of western action stories. 1996. Read by Garrick Hagon, 23 hours 49 minutes. TB
10983.
With selections by the premier short story writers of the genre, the reader will travel down
the "Trail of the lonely gun", with Les Savage Jr., will witness "The strange ride of Perry
Woodstock", by Max Brand, and will be introduced to Frank Bonham's "Border man". Also
included are stories by Luke Short, Ernest Haycox, Ryerson Johnson, and many others. TB
10983.

Detective stories from the Strand magazine. 1991. Read by Michael McStay, 14 hours 2
minutes. TB 9230.
25 stories of mystery and detection first published in the Strand magazine. Authors include:
Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Sapper, Edgar Wallace, Aldous Huxley, Conan Doyle and
E.C. Bentley. TB 9230.

Classic English short stories, 1930-1955. 1972. Read by Multiple narrators, 11 hours 21
minutes. TB 9271.

The Faber book of contemporary Australian short stories. 1988. Read by Erica Grant, Read by
Nigel Graham, 14 hours 55 minutes. TB 9185.
The art of story telling has always remained strong in Australia. When the European settlers
arrived, tales travelled from small-town bars to out-stations within the barren interior and
towards the coast. In this collection, editor Murray Bail aims to demonstrate the special
place the short story has within the culture of his country, challenging Patrick White's
condemnation of Australian literature as being "a dreary dun-coloured offspring of journalist
realism". TB 9185.

Great racing stories. 1989. Read by Nigel Carrington, Read by Francis Jeater, 8 hours 42
minutes. TB 8818.
Dick Francis, undisputed champion among thriller writers, and John Welcome, author of
many turf classics, select and introduce 14 of their all time favourite short stories, featuring
the very best of racing fiction.

Loves me, loves me not. 2009. Read by Multiple narrators, 17 hours 4 minutes. TB 17177.
A collection of over forty love stories.
Major American short stories. 1980. Read by Multiple narrators, 40 hours 37 minutes. TB
10266.
This collection of 46 stories by 28 writers encompasses the full range of American short
fiction. It includes a wide variety of subjects and forms, but strongly emphasises the work of
the major writers, with four stories each by Hawthorne and Poe, two by James and two each
by Irving, Crane and Faulkner. Stories range in time from 1819 to 1977, from traditional
works to recent experimental fiction by Barth, Coover and Joyce Carol Oates. TB 10266.

The mammoth book of best British mysteries. 2008. Read by Multiple narrators, 21 hours 14
minutes. TB 17178.
Over 20 short stories of murder mystery, selected from the very cream of British crime
fiction. Contributors include Lee Child, Colin Dexter, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Len
Deighton, John Harvey, and many more. Contains strong language, violence and passages of
a sexual nature.TB 17178.

The mammoth book of fantastic science fiction : short novels of the 1970s. 1992. Read by
Cameron Stewart, Read by Jacqueline King, 22 hours 20 minutes. TB 10196.
In the 1970s science fiction finally took centre stage in the culture of both Britain and
America. This kaleidoscope of the best of a decade of the genre includes works by Poul
Anderson, Gordon R Dickson, Donald Kingsbury, Larry Niven, Frederick Pohl, Robert
Silverberg, Norman Spinrad, John Varley, Joan D Vinge, Edward Wellen. TB 10196.

The Mammoth book of the western: an anthology of classic stories of the American frontier.
1991. Read by Garrick Hagon, 21 hours 37 minutes. TB 11945.
This volume brings together more than 20 short novels and stories, ranging from the
excitement of Max Brand's `Wine on the Desert' to the realism of Stephen Crane's `The Blue
Hotel', from Loren D. Estleman's elegiac `The Bandit' to Jack London's atmospheric `All Gold
Canyon'. Many of the stories, which feature ranchers, American Indians, outlaws and
pioneers, became celebrated films including Dorothy M. Johnson's `A Man Called Horse'. TB
11945.

The Mammoth book of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories. 1995. Read by Multiple
narrators, 26 hours 14 minutes. TB 10953.
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. TB 10953.
The mammoth book of vintage science fiction. 1990. Read by Multiple narrators, 23 hours 4
minutes. TB 10306.
In the 1970s science fiction finally took centre stage in the culture of both Britain and
America. This kaleidoscope of the very best science fiction comes from a brilliant decade for
the genre. TB 10306.

Nobel crimes. 1992. Read by Garard Green, 11 hours 6 minutes. TB 9914.

When the world's greatest writers turn to crime, mystery and detection, the results are
stunning. From Boll's chilling tale of an unrecorded war crime, via classic crime stories such
as Faulkner's "Smoke" and Hemingway's "The Killers" to T.S. Eliot's "McCavity" and Shaw's
"The mysterious revenge", this book encompasses all kinds of crime and mystery stories. The
writers are some of the most celebrated of our time, including Camus, France, Gordimer,
Kipling, Marquez, Steinbeck and many more. TB 9914.

The Oxford book of English short stories. 2009. Read by Multiple narrators, 22 hours 4
minutes. TB 17280.
The 37 stories featured here are selected from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
ranging from Dickens, Trollope, and Hardy to J. G. Ballard, Angela Carter, and Ian McEwan.
There are exuberant stories by Saki and Waugh, Wodehouse and Firbank. They pack
together comedy and tragedy, farce and delicacy, elegance and the grotesque, with
language as various as the subject matter. TB 17280.

The Penguin book of modern women's short stories. 1991. Read by Frances Jeater, 12 hours 48
minutes. TB 8874.
Susan Hill's collection of short stories by British women reveals the consolidations made
during the postwar period as women became more confident about articulating their desires
and intimate thoughts. Taken together, the stories drive a tap root into different aspects of
the feminine psyche. TB 8874.

Sex in the city: London. 2010. Read by Multiple narrators, 8 hours 3 minutes. TB 18245.
Twelve of the very best erotic writers have contributed to this anthology of erotic fiction
which all have London themes. Contributors include: Marcelle Perks & Kevin Mullins, Francis
Ann Kerr, Maxim Jakubowski, NJ Streitberger, Kristina Lloyd, Carrie Williams, C Clique, Matt
Thorne, Valerie Grey, Elizabeth Coldwell, Lily Harlem and Justine Elyot. Contains strong
language and passages of a sexual nature. TB 18245.

Smoke signals: stories of London. 1993. Read by Various, 8 hours 34 minutes. TB10620.
An anthology of new short stories, written by London writers, about the city. It includes the
winning entries from the 1992 London short story competition, together with specially
commissioned pieces from renowned authors. While the stories range in subject from
cannibalism to spiritual enlightenment, from bigamy to racism, all are clearly rooted in
London and reflect the common experience of a life dominated by journeys across a
metropolis grinding to a halt, where meetings can influence lives and where hostility and
isolation are matched by excitement. TB 10620.

Winter's tales: new series. 1985. Read by Christopher Saul, 5 hours. TB 6096.
A new series of contemporary stories by authors who are known internationally: Muriel
Spark; James Chatto; Gillian Tindall; Cees Nooteboom; Giles Gordon; Clare Colvin; Rachel
Billington; Zulfikar Ghose; Rachel Gould; and Frank Tuohy. TB 6096.

Women of mystery. 1992. Read by Carmen Lynne Williamson, 9 hours 29 minutes. TB 9439.
Cops, private eyes and ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations: here are
heroines facing danger and solving crimes with daring and panache. Amanda Cross's Kate
Fansler looks for a missing fellow-professor; Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski gets involved in
a complicated game; Ruth Rendell's heroine undergoes liberation from her former self; Mary
Higgins Clark highlights the heroic side of womankind in her story of a stewardess and a
stowaway. TB 9439.

Aickman, Robert
Intrusions: strange tales. 1980. Read by Andrew Timothy, 8 hours 52 minutes. TB 3837.
Six macabre tales, in which the strange and unexpected happens to ordinary people at the
most ordinary times. TB 3837.

Aldiss, Brian W
Last orders, and other stories. 1977. Read by Peter Gray, 9 hours 30 minutes. TB 3286.
Science fiction stories warning us what we might expect to find if a spacecraft landed in the
human psyche. TB 3286.

Amis, Martin
Einstein's monsters. 1987. Read by Antony Higginson, 5 hours 2 minutes. TB 7454.
A collection of five stories that create perplexing visions of a post-nuclear holocaust world,
highlighting schizophrenia, rape, brutality and suppurating despair. Contains passages of a
sexual nature. TB 7454.
Anderson, Jessica
Stories from the warm zone and Sydney stories. 1987. Read by Rosemary Miller, 9 hours 13
minutes. TB 7493.
Stories from the warm zone are told from the point of view of an eight-year-old girl, the
youngest in a family of one boy and two sisters. Sibling rivalries and alliances, love and
apartness chronicle the subtle interplay of the various members of her family as they
establish separate identities at home and in school. Sydney stories are set in the adult world
but retain the same sureness of vision and sharp dialogue. TB 7493.

Archer, Jeffrey
A quiver full of arrows. 1981. Read by Brian Perkins, 5 hours 45 minutes. TB 6863.
Twelve short stories with locations as far apart as London and New York, Mexico and
Nigeria. In "The Luncheon" a young man learns the dangers of taking out someone who"
enjoys a light lunch"; a pleasantly untraditional cricket match is played between Oxford and
Cambridge in "The Century" and 'Broken Routine" shatters the incredibly well ordered life of
Septimus Horatio Cornwallis with charming ferocity on an unscheduled train from Cannon
Street. TB 6863.

Archer, Jeffrey
Cat o'nine tales: and other stories. 2007. Read by Anton Lang, 7 hours 32 minutes. TB 17172.
These short stories feature the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know as well as some
more poignant and telling characters. Many of these stories came to Archer while he was
incarcerated for two years in five different prisons, and so they have a prison theme. Others
were inspired since he was released. TB 17172.

Asimov, Isaac
Nine tomorrows: tales from the near future. 1959. Read by Ian Craig, 7 hours 54 minutes. TB
5745.
Stories combining scientific fact with mankind's unscientific unpredictability provide nine
glimpses into the not-to-distant future of earth people.

Asimov, Isaac
The bicentennial man: and other stories. 1978. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 9 hours. TB 3085.
Science fiction stories, written between 1969 and 1975 and dealing with a wide range of
ideas, including the author's favourite theme, robotics. TB 3085.
Atwood, Margaret
Dancing girls and other stories. 1982. Read by Pauline Munro, 7 hours 41 minutes. TB 5371.
A collection of twelve stories about everyday people who are confronted by unexpected
happenings. These include trying to survive at sea after an aircrash, and discovering the
harsh reality of childbirth. TB 5371.

Atwood, Margaret
Bluebeard's egg, and other stories. 1987. Read by Pauline Munro, 9 hours 3 minutes. TB 7424.
A wide range of stories with settings from a remote rural backwater to a frenetic metropolis
in which the author reveals her awareness of the despair and anxiety in the human race -
and her sense of the ridiculous. She explores the less conventional bonds: that between a
political activist and his cat, a woman and her dead psychiatrist and an artist and the men
she stalks to use as naked models.

Auchincloss, Louis
Skinny island: more tales of Manhattan. 1988. Read by James Tillitt, 7 hours 37 minutes. TB
8476.
From the turn of the century to our present urban follies, these stories follow the fortunes of
the socially secure and powerful as they try to cope with the changes shaped by the
momentous events and growing anxieties of recent decades. Taken together, the tales
weave a larger pattern of human strengths and foibles that bemuses the mind and touches
the heart. TB 8476.

Austen, Jane
Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon. 1974. Read by Norma West, 6 hours 44 minutes. TB
12580.
"Lady Susan", with its wicked, beautiful and energetic heroine, is a sparkling melodrama.
"The Watsons" is a story whose vitality and optimism centre on the marital prospects of the
Watson sisters in a small provincial town. "Sanditon" is set in a seaside town and its themes
concern the new speculative consumer society and foreshadow the social upheavals of the
Industrial Revolution. TB 12580.

Ballard, J G
Myths of the near future. 1982. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 7 hours 3 minutes. TB 4791.
Ten somewhat nightmarish and gruesome tales, ranging from the forced colonisation of
holidaymakers in the Canaries to solve European unemployment, to the horrific
consequences for a Japanese P.O.W. entrusted with the disposal of fifty corpses at the end
of the Second World War. TB 4791.
Ballard, J G
The disaster area. 1967. Read by Arthur Blake, 6 hours 7 minutes. TB 7728.
These nine stories are science fiction at its most thought provoking. They project current
trends into the future and explore the psychological traumas of adjusting to their logical
conclusions. The agricultural sprays that produce seagulls with 20 foot wing spans; cars
which fall to pieces after six months owing to effective road design; a science student trying
to invent a flying machine in a city where space is at its premium. TB 7728.

Barnes, Julian
The lemon table. 2004. Read by Timothy West, Read by Prunella Scales, 6 hours 9 minutes. TB
17827.
In this collection of stories it is permissible - indeed obligatory - to talk about death at the
'lemon table', and each of Julian Barnes' characters is facing death, but each in a very
different way. Contains strong language. TB 17827.

Bates, H E
The wild cherry tree. 1968. Read by Anthony Parker, 6 hours 45 minutes. TB 641.
A collection of short stories. TB 641.

Bellow, Saul
Mosby's memoirs and other stories. 1968. Read by Marvin Kane, 6 hours 45 minutes. TB 921.
The mystery and fascination of human experience are the subjects of these six stories. TB
921.

Bentley, Phyllis
More tales of the West Riding. 1974. Read by Eric Gillett, 7 hours 14 minutes. TB 2706.
Short stories set in the West Riding of Yorkshire, telling of the people the author loves and
understands so well. TB 2706.

Birmingham, Stephen
Heart troubles: short stories. 1969. Read by Marvin Kane, 6 hours 54 minutes. TB 943.
Fourteen short stories about people of various ages, all beset by troubles of the heart. TB
943.
Boll, Heinrich
Children are civilians too. 1973. Read by Eric Gillett, 7 hours 15 minutes. TB 2671.
A collection of short stories written between 1947 and 1951, all portraying the aftermath of
the war in Germany as the country struggles to restore its faith in itself after the devastation.
TB 2671.

Borges, Jorge Luis

Doctor Brodie's report. 1976. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 3 hours 5 minutes. TB 8232.
Eleven short stories set in Buenos Aires told with an almost laconic simplicity that
occasionally shocks with true Spanish cruelty. In "The Gospel according to Mark" a visitor
dallies with conversation and is too successful; in "The Intruder" two brothers fall in love
with the same woman and seek, tragically, for a solution; and in the title story David Brodie
D.D., a Scottish missionary, tries to understand the customs of the Yahoos. TB 8232.

Borges, Jorge Luis

The book of sand. 1979. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 4 hours 46 minutes. TB 7514.
All these stories were written in the author's seventies. "Blind man's exercises", he calls
them, but although increasing blindness has given his writings a deeper sadness, his way of
conjuring with images - an infinite book, a one-sided disc, mirrors, a golden mask, a dagger -
is as potent and beautiful as ever. He seems to be incapable of losing his visionary touch. The
second half of the book consists of poems written in Spanish as well as in translation. TB
7514.

Bowen, Elizabeth
The collected stories of Elizabeth Bowen. 1980. Read by Rosalind Shanks, 38 hours 38 minutes.
TB 4841.
Rational behaviour and social portraiture can be expected in novels but the author reckoned
that short stories allowed for 'what is crazy about humanity'. All of them, from early brief
sketches in Encounters (1923) to the later 'novellas', have a distinctive, disconcerting edge.
TB 4841.

Boyd, William
On the Yankee station: and other stories. 1981. Read by Garrick Hagon, 7 hours 45 minutes. TB
8832.
Eighteen short stories ranging from adolescent sex in a Scottish boys' public school to
murder in a quiet village in Devon. There are two adventures from the earlier career of
Morgan Leafy (anti-hero of "A Good Man in Africa", TB 4053) and the title story is a chilling
study of hatred during the Vietnam War. TB 8832.
Boyden, Joseph
Born with a tooth. 2001. Read by Mike Morrison, 8 hours. TB 17449.
A collection of short stories set in the native reserves in Northern Ontario. The characters
include a young woman who falls in love with a wolf, a boy who enters the pro-wrestling ring
and takes on the defending champion, a lead singer for an all-girl punk band, a desperado
named Painted Tongue, and a town nerd who learns how to literally escape his own ugly
skin. TB 17449.

Bradley, Marion Zimmer

The best of Marion Zimmer Bradley. 1990. Read by Kate Binchy, 13 hours 44 minutes. TB 8345.
Fifteen unearthly tales spanning the whole universe of the imagination. From an alien
invasion where death is the key to success ... to a Darkovian Renunciate who must choose
between the laws of her Guild and the life of a brave warrior... TB 8345.

Buchan, John
The best short stories of John Buchan. 1980. Read by David Geary, 7 hours 24 minutes. TB
3850.
Twelve of the many short stories written by Buchan between the 1880's and 1920's.

Burgess, Anthony
The devil's mode. 1989. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 12 hours 34 minutes. TB 9856.
His first collection of stories, as varied and original as one would expect. At the centre of the
collection is a novella "Hun", telling the story of Attila. Eight further stories stretch from a
husband and wife's infidelities in Brunei and Malaya, to 17th century Spain, where
Shakespeare meets Cervantes and the two men debate their respective modes of writing.
Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 9856.

Byatt, A S
The Matisse stories. 1993. Read by Tom Crowe, 2 hours 54 minutes. TB 10245.
Here are three stories, haunted in different ways by the spirit of Matisse. Lives unravel from
simple beginnings: a trip to the hairdresser, a cleaning lady's passion for knitting, lunch in a
Chinese restaurant. The everyday is transformed, the ordinary peels back to expose pain, to
reveal desire, longing and joy in colour and creation. Even against our will, it seems great art
lights the patterns of and meaning to our lives. TB 10245.
Calvino, Italo
Adam, one afternoon: and other stories. 1983. Read by Gordon Dulieu, 6 hours 49 minutes. TB
5032.
Stories written over twenty years ago in the Italy of the Partisans in which the author
describes the anguished alternation between hope and fear of men faced with death, both
by Partisan and German. He feels also with a fifteen-year-old the awareness of his parents'
condescension and hollow heartiness. TB 5032.

Carter, Angela
Black Venus. 1985. Read by Pauline Munro, 4 hours 33 minutes. TB 6210.
A rich, ripe collection of short stories, some of which are based on real people such a Edgar
Allen Poe and Lizzie Borden. The title story is about Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire's handsome
but reluctant muse, who never asked to be called a Black Venus. TB 6210.

Carver, Raymond
Beginners. 2009. Read by William Roberts, Read by Jeff Harding, Read by Regina Reagan, 8
hours 41 minutes. TB 17184.
Beginners" is Carver's most famous collection of short stories - "What We Talk About When
We Talk About Love". This is the unedited version. A young girl, dancing with her lover
amidst the debris of an older man's life, has her first forewarning of the dangers of
adulthood, and is filled with an 'unbearable happiness'. A man and woman lock themselves
in a motel room and slowly, painfully, acknowledge the end of a relationship, while
somewhere else in the lonely Midwest a man is photographed over and over again as he
attempts to locate himself in a world that seems utterly without focus. Contains strong
language. TB 17184.

Cather, Willa
The short stories of Willa Cather. 1989. Read by William Roberts, Read by Helen Horton, 19
hours 4 minutes. TB 9517.
In this selection from Willa Cather's work, Hermione Lee presents the reader with a diverse
mixture of writings, spanning all her creative life. Cather draws on her observations of black
oppression, commercial art, the literary lifestyle and family art in contemporary America. TB
9517.

Cheever, John
The stories of John Cheever. 1990. Read by Garrick Hagon, 35 hours 44 minutes. TB 9401.
These outstanding stories of American award-winning novelist John Cheever show the
power and range of one of the finest short story writers of the century. Stories of love and
squalor in which momentary glimpses of brightness contend with time, social change and
the chaos of history. Contains strong language. TB 9401.

Chekhov, A P
Five short stories. Read by Simon Cadell, Read by Michael G Cox, Read by Patience Collier, 1
hours 6 minutes. TB 13741.
This collection consists of "The Black Monk" and "The Boys" read by Simon Cadell, "The
Cobbler and the Devil" and "The Siren" read by Michael Graham Cox, and "The Party" read
by Patience Collier. Chekhov wrote these humorous stories to earn extra money while
studying medicine in Moscow in 1879.The humour is often tempered with pessimism and
there is frequently a twist in the ending. TB 13741.

Chesterton, G K
The wisdom of Father Brown. 1914. Read by Peter Bryant, 7 hours 15 minutes. TB 802.
Twelve further detective stories. TB 802.

Christie, Agatha
Thirteen problems. 1972. Read by Marilyn Finlay, 7 hours 34 minutes. TB 9821.
Miss Marple appears in each of these thirteen stories, solving the most amazing mysteries
quietly and unobtrusively from her chair by the fireside. TB 9821.

Christie, Agatha
Poirot's early cases. 1974. Read by Peter Barker, 10 hours 45 minutes. TB 2659.
Eighteen short stories centring on the cases which helped to establish the little Belgian
detective's professional reputation. TB 2659.

Clarke, Arthur C
The wind from the sun: stories of the space age. 1972. Read by David Banks, 7 hours 34
minutes. TB 9162.
Eighteen short science fiction stories written during the 1960s.

Cloete, Stuart
Three white swans, and other stories. 1971. Read by David Strong, 9 hours 21 minutes. TB
1766.
Short stories set in Malaya, America, Africa, and England setting out with sometimes brutal
realism the emotions, similar in all the countries, which make men act as they do. TB 1766.
Coleman, Jane Candia
Moving on. 1999. Read by Kath Taylor-Kemp, 9 hours 44 minutes. TB 15283.
A collection of short stories about the American West.

Cooper, Jilly
Lisa and co. 1982. Read by Patricia Hughes, 9 hours 28 minutes. TB 7146.
Fourteen short stories about Lisa and others who fall in and out of love, finding, losing (and
often finding again) the men of their dreams.

Cowan, Judith Elaine

Gambler's fallacy. 2001. Read by Phyllis Lowe, 7 hours 28 minutes. TB 18479.
A collection of seven stories set in Trois-Rivières, Québec. They feature an erratic cast of
ordinarily forgotten folks who have fallen through the cracks. These include a woman called
Raymonde, who is anxiously awaiting guests to her lover's book launching, and Jacques, a
man of simplicity, observing the often unnoticed and underappreciated aspects of daily life.
TB 18479.

Coyote, Ivan E
One man's trash. 2002. Read by Nicole Nakoneshny, 2 hours 30 minutes. TB 17868.
A collection of stories about being gay and searching out new frontiers on the road and on
the home front. Includes stories of Coyote's attempts to get married in Vegas with her
girlfriend, her heroic horse-riding aunt, and a family of beaver-eating eccentrics. TB 17868.

Crace, Jim
Continent. 1986. Read by Tom Crowe, 4 hours 3 minutes. TB 6779.
In his "Histories" Pycletius wrote: "There and beyond is a seventh continent...and its
business is trade and superstition." Seven surprising narratives about this mythical land and
its inhabitants explore the irreconcilable forces implicit in all cultures. TB 6779.

Dahl, Roald
The collected short stories of Roald Dahl. 1991. Read by Stephen Thorne, 29 hours 21 minutes.
TB 9571.
This complete collection of Roald Dahl's adult short stories includes all those from his world
famous books "Over To You", "Someone Like You", "Kiss, Kiss" and "Switch Bitch", many of
them seen in the superb television series "Tales of the Unexpected". In addition, there are
eight further stories taken from other sources, including two which have not been published
before in book form "The Bookseller" and "The Surgeon". TB 9571.

Dick, Philip K
Little black box. 1990. Read by Eric Meyers, 19 hours 52 minutes. TB 9633.
Fifth and final volume of collected short stories, covering the period 1963-1981, the year
before his death. TB 9633.

Dickens, Charles
Christmas stories. 1850-67. Read by George Hagan, 34 hours 30 minutes. TB 696.
A collection of short stories written by Dickens, sometimes alone, sometimes in
collaboration with Wilkie Collins, for the Christmas numbers of magazines to which he
contributed. TB 696.

Donaldson, Stephen R
Reave the just and other tales. 1999. Read by Stuart Milligan, 16 hours 55 minutes. TB 17388.
A collection of eight short stories rich with exotic atmosphere, mysticism and menace.
Contains violence and passages of a sexual nature. TB 17388.

Doyle, Arthur Conan

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. 1894. Read by Stephen Jack, 8 hours 45 minutes. TB 1288.
Eleven adventures of the Baker Street detective.

Doyle, Arthur Conan

His last bow: some reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes. 1917. Read by Andrew Timothy, 6 hours
3 minutes. TB 1243.
Dr Watson once again opens his portfoliio to reveal eight strange cases solved by the keen
intellect of the master detective. They range from murdering and kidnapping to theft and
treachery - though on one occasion it is Holmes and Watson who commit the crime of
burglary. TB 1243.

Du Maurier, Daphne
Not after midnight, and other stories. 1971. Read by Peter Cushing, 11 hours 13 minutes. TB
1764.
Five long stories about unremarkable people caught up in situations beyond the boundaries
of their experience. TB 1764.
Duncan, Ronald
The perfect mistress: and other stories. 1969. Read by Colin Keith-Johnston, 4 hours 30
minutes. TB 1015.
A collection of short stories, tender and grim, witty and earnest, in a variety of settings. TB
1015.

Ellison, Harlan
Shatterday. 1982. Read by Marvin Kane, 10 hours 56 minutes. TB 4475.
Sixteen science fiction stories (one a novella), to freeze the blood-horror for our own time.
TB 4475.

Fleming, Ian
Octopussy. 2008. Read by David Rintoul, 2 hours 51 minutes. TB 15638.
James Bond series; book 14. Sequel to: The man with the golden gun, TB 1161. In Octopussy,
a brilliant major pays a high price when his past catches up with him. In The Living Daylights,
bond has a rendezvous with a sniper in Berlin. In The Property of a Lady, an auction at
Sotheby's is heating up as the bidding starts with fear and ends with terror. Contains strong
language. TB 15638.

Fowles, John
The ebony tower. 1974. Read by David Dunhill, 10 hours 45 minutes. TB 2782.
Four novellas, varied in style and subject, together with a translation of an early French
romance to which the author can trace much of his own need to write. TB 2782.

Gardam, Jane
The Sidmouth letters. 1980. Read by Robin Holmes, 6 hours 13 minutes. TB 3658.
Short stories in which the author conveys the extraordinary nature of the most ordinary
events. TB 3658.

Gardam, Jane
The people on Privilege Hill. 2008. Read by Jane Gardam, 5 hours 6 minutes. TB 17352.
A collection of stories ranging from a Victorian mansion converted into a home for
unmarried mothers to a wartime hospital in the middle of the Blitz, from ghost stories to
brilliant observations of love and loneliness in their various manifestations - including, in
'Pangbourne', a woman who falls in love with a gorilla - to reflections on the haphazard
nature of intellect and memories in 'The Last Reunion'. TB 17352.
Gellhorn, Martha
The short novels of Martha Gellhorn. 1991. Read by Lorelei King, 29 hours 21 minutes. TB
9423.
Here are tales of people living with enthusiasm, riding on success and facing failure. All meet
their fates in the landscapes described so well by Martha Gellhorn: the great cities of
Europe, the colonial enclaves of Africa, the American deep south.

Gilliatt, Penelope
What's it like out? and other stories. 1968. Read by Arthur Bush, 6 hours 45 minutes. TB 959.
Nine short stories showing the author's deep understanding of people and their actions. TB
959.

Glennon, Paul
How did you sleep?. 2000. Read by Geoffrey Pierpoint, 5 hours 15 minutes. TB 17891.
A collection of nineteen short stories on the subjects of madmen, paranoiacs and the
allegorically burdened: a husband wonders if his wife has always been made of wood; a
scientist suspects his left hand is plotting against him; a tourist visits a museum dedicated to
his own failed romance. For the characters in these stories life is a board game to which they
have lost the instructions. Contains strong language and violence. TB 17891.

Gordimer, Nadine
Something out there. 1984. Read by Norma West, 7 hours 32 minutes. TB 5308.
Nine stories: one, the last and longest, in which the menace of an alien creature "out there",
stealing food and killing pets, counterpoints the preparations of a guerilla cell for an act of
sabotage. The author writes with a compassionate perception of the various moods of love
as well as the sorrow that can ensue.

Greene, Graham
May we borrow your husband? and other comedies of the sexual life. 1967. Read by Alan Lyne,
4 hours 40 minutes. TB 157.
A collection of short stories which leave the reader feeling he has met some unusual but
strangely real people. TB 157.
Greene, Graham
Twenty-one stories. 2001. Read by Stephen Grief, 7 hours 18 minutes. TB 16738.
The stories in this book, all written between 1929 and 1954, all share the themes that
feature so strongly in Graham Greene's novels: humour and violence, pity and hatred,
betrayal and pursuit. Comic, sad, shocking and tragic, they recount the tales of Mr Maling's
loud stomach, destructive gangs of children, indiscretions revealed and secrets uncovered.
Contains strong language.TB 16738.

Greig, Francis
The bite and other apocryphal tales. 1982. Read by William Abney, 5 hours 42 minutes. TB
4243.
Some of the tales are funny, others sinister and most of them would demand some courage
to read alone in an empty house at night ... TB 4243.

Hardy, Melissa
The uncharted heart. 2001. Read by Geoffrey Pierpoint, 6 hours 36 minutes. TB 17865.
Eight stories, describing the unseen or "uncharted" regions of life, set among pioneers and
Aboriginal people in Northern Ontario in the early 1900s. In "Traplines" a woman and her
child flee from a dangerous man, whom she knows to be a weendigo, a monster with an
insatiable appetite for eating humans. A fur trader's discovery, in "The Ice Woman," of an
Ojibway woman encased in ice at the edge of a lake leads to his own disappearance.
Contains strong language. TB 17865.

Hardy, Thomas
A changed man. 1889. Read by Robin Holmes, 13 hours 42 minutes. TB 2640.
Twelve short stories.

Hardy, Thomas
Wessex tales. 1991. Read by Vincent Brimble, 9 hours 6 minutes. TB 8901.
In this series of short stories, Hardy brings out the superstitions and legends of a Wessex
which was rapidly passing and the harsh social climate of Dorset in the 1880s. His growing
cynicism over personal and sexual relationships also comes through. TB 8901.

Hasek, Jaroslav
The red commissar: including further adventures of the good soldier Svejk and other stories.
1983. Read by Stanley McGeagh, 7 hours 50 minutes. TB 5120.
By the time war broke out the author had compromised himself so completely that it came
as a relief for him to escape into military duties. In 1918 he was made a Bolshevik Commissar
and these stories gently poke fun at bureaucratic idiocy and pomposity while not
overlooking the fact that this was a time when it was "as simple to garrotte a human being
as to wring the neck of a goose." TB 5120.

Henry, O
58 short stories. 1908. Read by Marvin Kane, 19 hours 25 minutes. TB 1751.
Humorous and ingenious short stories.

Heti, Sheila
The middle stories. 2001. Read by Aileen Seaton, 3 hours 30 minutes. TB 18455.
The Middle Stories is a collection of stories, fables, and short brutalities that are alternately
heart-warming, cruel, and hilarious. Finalist for the Writers Craft Award and the Re-Lit
Award. TB 18455.

Hill, Reginald
Asking for the moon. 1996. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 9 hours 30 minutes. TB 11071.
Dalziel and Pascoe series; book 13. In this collection of four short stories, Reginal Hill
divulges how Fat Andy and Peter Pascoe met in "The last national service man". "Pascoe's
ghost" finds the inspector investigating the fate of a woman who seems to have slipped out
the world. And Pascoe isn't the only one having a brush with the supernatural: "Dalziel's
ghost" sees him expressing a surprising interest in the 'other side'. "One small step" looks to
the future where murder on the moon requires the personal intervention of Commissioner
Peter Pascoe of the Eurofed Justice Department... TB 11071.

Houston, Pam
Cowboys are my weakness and other stories. 1993. Read by Liza Ross, 4 hours 29 minutes. TB
9786.
Sexy, gutsy, and written in prose reflecting the psychic and geographical wilderness through
which its characters roam, these twelve stories tell of the pleasure of dancing the two-step
at the Stockgrowers' ball, the pity of stalking beautiful beasts, the comforting companionship
of dogs, the challenge of a tetchy horse, and of course, sex, love and loss. Contains strong
language. TB 9786.

Howard, Elizabeth Jane

Mr Wrong. 1975. Read by Carol Marsh, 8 hours 45 minutes. TB 2826.
Nine stories with themes ranging from marital infidelity to the macabre explore the passion,
trust, confusion, and betrayal of human sentiments. TB 2826.
Hunter, Aislinn
What's left us: stories and a novella. 2001. Read by Aileen Seaton, 6 hours 19 minutes. TB
18099.
Set in London, Dublin, Vancouver and southern Ontario, the six stories and novella explore
love, loss and family relations. The characters include a woman who believes she has a
Divine calling to work at Dublin's xxx-rated cinema; a pregnant and unwed young woman
who spends the month before her child's birth searching for her family's mysterious origins;
and a woman whose marriage to a carpenter is in such a state of disrepair that she commits
a very public act of rebellion. TB 18099.

Innes, Michael
The Appleby file: detective stories. 1975. Read by Andrew Timothy, 7 hours. TB 2939.
Sir John Appleby series; book 33. A collection of short stories about the varied adventures of
Sir John Appleby, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. TB 2939.

Irving, Washington
The sketch book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 2006. Read by Jeff Harding, 15 hours 41 minutes.
TB 17332.
'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' and 'Rip Van Winkle' are classics of American fiction and
display Irving's ability to depict American landscapes and culture. Irving earned his
preeminence in early American literature with the masterpieces in miniature collected here:
travel essays, tale of romance, biographical discourses and literary musings. TB 17332.

Ishiguro, Kazuo
Nocturnes: five stories of music and nightfall. 2009. Read by David Thorpe, Read by Matt
Addis, Read by Peter Brooke, 6 hours 9 minutes. TB 16880.
In a sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time.
From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the 'hush-hush floor' of an
exclusive Hollywood hotel, the characters we encounter range from young dreamers to cafe
musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning. Contains strong
language. TB 16880.

Jacobs, W W
Light freights. 1901. Read by Jon Curle, 7 hours 15 minutes. TB 1305.
Stories of old salts, introducing some of the author's best comic characters, Bob Pretty,
Ginger Dick and Old Sam Small. TB 1305.
Jameson, Storm
Women against men. 1982. Read by Vivien Creegor, 11 hours 21 minutes. TB 5501.
Three short novels about very different women, examining their relationships with men and
with other women. TB 5501.

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer

East into upper east: plain tales from New York and New Delhi. 1998. Read by Multiple
narrators, 13 hours 10 minutes. TB 11825.
The stories in this collection span two worlds - the restless, aspiring society of New York's
Upper East side, and the world of India's capital city, New Delhi, where the old India is giving
way to one powered by industry and property development. A rich cast of characters
inhabits these stories - Indian businessmen, holy women, students, society hostesses and
ambitious young politicans; New Yorkers preoccupied with money yet in search of meaning,
struggling with their longings and failures and complicated sex lives. TB 11825.

Joseph, Marie
The way we were. 1994. Read by Carole Boyd, 8 hours 30 minutes. TB 11014.
A collection of Marie Joseph's short stories, previously published in magazines in the 1960s
and 1970s. The stories include the husband who has spent his life surrounded by women
and longs for a son and companion; a couple who are brought together with unexpected
help from a feline source; and a younger sister's wedding which brings faint misgivings and
memories from the past. All are told in the sepia of nostalgia and tinged with the irony that
are Marie Joseph's hallmarks. TB 11014.

Kafka, Franz
The metamorphosis and other stories. 2007. Read by Thomas Eyre, Read by Steve Hodson,
Read by Damian Lynch, 9 hours 27 minutes. TB 17462.
A collection of short stories. In the main story "The Metamorphosis" - A commercial traveller
is unexpectedly freed from his dreary job by his inexplicable transformation into an insect,
which drastically alters his relationship with his family. TB 17462.

Kennedy, Lena
Ivy of the angel. 1993. Read by Joe Dunlop, Read by Carol Marsh, 7 hours 6 minutes. TB 9651.
Eleven vivid and compelling stories. The title story reveals why an elderly bag lady becomes
the centre of attention in an Oxford Street store; there is a tale of thwarted love in London's
East End, and a number of examples of how the smooth surface of a buried past can be
disrupted by the intrusions of the present. With her customary freshness and directness,
Lena Kennedy explores the enduring power of love, the triumph of hope over adversity, the
problems of illness and racial prejudice, and the quirky kindness of fate. TB 9651.
Kiely, Benedict
A letter to Peachtree: and nine other stories. 1988. Read by Philip O'Sullivan, 7 hours 48
minutes. TB 7415.
Ten short stories in which the tragic and comic sides of life rub shoulders in the west of
Ireland. In the title story a trip on the train out of Dublin becomes something much more by
the time the occupants return, more off the rail than on. In Secondary Top, the local name
for the part of the school where the older girls go, letters of complaint have been received
from the mothers of the teenagers alleging the intimate attentions of one of their teachers.
TB 7415.

King, Stephen
Four past midnight. 1990. Read by Adam Henderson, 28 hours 54 minutes. TB 9598.
This collection of four novellas tells of a terrifying airline journey to a dead world, of a lonely
man who suddenly finds himself very much not alone, of a new camera which takes
terrifying pictures and of evil at work in Iowa. Contains violence. TB 9598.

Kinsella, W P
Japanese baseball and other stories . 2000. Read by Jim Rodger, 6 hours 5 minutes. TB 17451.
A collection of baseball short stories that will delight all lovers of engaging storytelling and
fans of the sport Kinsella chronicles in "Shoeless Joe," "Field of dreams," and "The thrill of
the grass." Kinsella weaves his characters into the thrill of the game, be it in Japan, Central
America, Canada or the U.S., with a variety of comic, tragic, and mystical results. TB 17451.

Kipling, Rudyard
The man who would be king and other stories. 1987. Read by Michael Elder, 4 hours 13
minutes. TB 8946.
A collection of stories features the tale of two ex-British soldiers who try to establish their
own kingdom. TB 8946.

Kipling, Rudyard
Mrs Bathurst and other stories. 1991. Read by Jon Cartwright, 11 hours 10 minutes. TB 9357.
In this selection of his late stories, some unforgettable women tell, or conceal, the secrets of
their lives. There are ghosts, hauntings and psychological studies. One of the earliest radio
signals comes crackling through the dark, a pioneer motorist rejoices in his new-found
freedom, and the English find themselves threatened from the air. Here are Kipling's
considered views on writing and artists. TB
Klassen, Sarah
The peony season. 2000. Read by Anne Glatt, 9 hours 15 minutes. TB 18225.
From Zaire to Winnipeg to Ukraine, these short stories provide an assortment of characters
who transcend various circumstances to explore personal experiences. They reflect a
recurring tension between a desire for solitude and the needs of companionship; between
wanting to enter other people's stories and lives and wanting to remain separate, a stranger.
TB 18225.

Le Guin, Ursula K
The compass rose.1983. Read by Malcolm Ruthven, 9 hours 30 minutes. TB 5155.
A compass of spatial dimensions as well as the usual four directions give a framework to
twenty new stories ranging from science fiction to fantasy and a magical realism. The author
finds comedy as well as tragedy as her satire stretches from a well-known TV series to a
totalitarian America of the future. TB 5155.

Leach, Christopher
Scars and other ceremonies. 1980. Read by Brian Perkins, 4 hours 58 minutes. TB 3779.
Twelve short stories with hidden resonances of fear and violence.

Lee, Nancy
Dead girls. 2002. Read by Gillian Hart, 7 hours 31 minutes. TB 18071.
A hand model's strange and troubled bond with her ailing father is revealed though an
inventory of her body parts. A marriage is tested as a mother struggles to cope with the
disappearance of her prostitute daughter, while two angry women in a mini-van search for
catharsis as they rampage through the night. Linked by the background narrative of a serial
killer's arrest in Vancouver, these dark short stories of emotional wagers, discovery and loss
reveal the desires and delusions that compel us to do the things we do. Contains strong
language and passages of a sexual nature. TB 18071.

Leonard, Elmore
The complete Western stories of Elmore Leonard. 2007. Read by Jeff Harding, 21 hours 14
minutes. TB 16172.

Lessing, Doris
The story of a non-marrying man, and other stories. 1972. Read by Norma West, 10 hours 18
minutes. TB 8836.
In this collection of 13 short stories Doris Lessing offers a unique, sensitive and sometimes
humorous study of humanity from a tale of adultery in "Not a Very Nice Story" to an analysis
of self-doubt in "The Temptation of Jack Orkney". TB 8836.
Lessing, Doris
The black madonna. 1992. Read by Norma West, 2 hours 52 minutes. TB 9039.
A series of short stories with an African setting, exploring the whole range of human
emotions, portraying modern woman in all her complexity.TB 9039.

Linklater, Eric
The stories of Eric Linklater. 1968. Read by Marvin Kane, 13 hours 30 minutes. TB 498.
Eighteen stories from his previous collections with widely varied themes and backgrounds.
TB 498.

Listowel, Judith Hare

Dusk on the Danube. 1969. Read by Carol Marsh, 7 hours 15 minutes. TB 1013.
Six stories set against a background of the author's native Hungary during the changing
times from 1920 to the Nazi occupation and Soviet oppression. TB 1013.

Lovecraft, H P
H.P. Lovecraft omnibus 1: At the mountains of madness and other novels of terror. 1985. Read
by William Roberts, 20 hours 6 minutes. TB 17021.
Gathered together are seven tales of horror in the gothic tradition - full of hinted terrors and
unholy stenches, supernatural terror and vilest horror. TB 17021.

Lyon, Annabel
Oxygen. 2000. Read by Angela Willson, 5 hours 10 minutes. TB 18085.
A collection of short stories covering many different elements within the theme of family.
Topics include dating, death, relationships between parents and children, and those
between friends. Contains strong language. TB 18085.

MacLaverty, Bernard
The great Profundo: and other stories. 1987. Read by Denys Hawthorne, 5 hours 9 minutes.
TB 7354.
The characters in these stories are on the fringes of society, forced to seek consolation as
best they can, like the lonely old lady who resorts to posting a monthly letter to herself. In a
shabby world, some just suffer unseen, but a young boy manages to lose his shame in the
psoriasis on his chest through his friendship with an eccentric duchess, and a poem is the
link between two strangers. TB 7354.
Malamud, Bernard
The stories of Bernard Malamud. 1984. Read by Maxine Howe, 10 hours 43 minutes. TB 5466.
A collection of twenty-five short stories about Jewish Americans, a celebration and an
expiation which gently unravels the complexities of human behaviour with both clarity and
charity. TB 5466.

Mansfield, Katherine
Collected stories. 1945. Read by Rosalind Shanks, 29 hours 4 minutes. TB 5303.
A collection of ninety-one short stories from a New Zealander who spent most of her life in
Europe, writing stories and continually seeking higher standards in her writing. Her first book
was published in 1911 and, until her early death in 1923 at the age of thirty-four, she wrote
continuously, although from 1917 she was also searching for a cure for tuberculosis. Her
reputation as a writer stems from the undramatic, sensitive and lyrical quality of her stories.
TB 5303.

Mars-Jones, Adam
Lantern lecture. 1981. Read by Robert Gladwell, 8 hours 8 minutes. TB 4438.
Three stories by a new writer: the title story is an amusing account of the disorders which
are the normal occurence of Philip Yorke's life, the last squire of Erdigg driving in his acient
Morris Cowley with a bicycle on the roof for lifeboat duty. The second story, Hoosh-mi, is a
satire of royalty and the last and longest, Bathpool Park, is concerned with the law. TB

Maupassant, Guy de
Boule de suif and other stories. 1880. Read by Robin Holmes, 9 hours 5 minutes. TB 1414.
A collection of short stories by one of the masters of French literature.

Mitchison, Naomi
Images of Africa. 1980. Read by Robin Holmes, 5 hours 4 minutes. TB 3879.
Stories from Botswana and Zambia.

Moggach, Deborah
Smile. 1988. Read by Helen Copp, Read by Raymond Sawyer, 4 hours 43 minutes. TB 7800.
A series of 11 realistic short stories, written with wit and compassion, in which the author
explores modern relationships and everyday human crises. Through her characters, which
range from a Brighton waitress to a father to be at an ante-natal class, various themes are
revealed: women's endeavour to please in love and the compromises people make in life. TB
7800.
Moore, George
Celibate lives. 1927. Read by George Hagan, 8 hours 11 minutes. TB 1005.
Five stories, each chronicling a life.

Morgan, Bernice
The topography of love: stories. 2000. Read by Ann Saunders, 10 hours 26 minutes. TB 17551.
A day spent at the home of a movie star leads three fiends to divulge secrets. A woman
returns home after many years to find that her childhood friend has led a bleak version of
her own life. Morgan's short stories take place in Newfoundland and focus on the bonds
between family and friends. Contains strong language. TB 17551.

Mortimer, John
Rumpole. 1980. Read by John Westbrook, 14 hours 43 minutes. TB 3774.
Rumpole series; book 3. Rumpole is the oldest Junior in Chambers, a barrister who never
prosecutes, is apt to quote poetry, and has a wife known as "She Who Must Be Obeyed".
The stories in this collection were previously published as "Rumpole of the Bailey" and "The
Trials of Rumpole".

Munro, Alice
Runaway. 2006. Read by Liza Ross, Read by Garrick Hagon, 11 hours 44 minutes. TB 17168.
The runaway of the disturbing title story is Carla, a congenital 'bolter', who has neighbourly
fantasies that take on a frightening afterlife... Elsewhere, a stagestruck girl finds life is more
Shakespearean than even she imagines; while Tessa, a young country woman with strange
powers cannot foresee what will happen if she makes off with a plausible charmer. The
stories unravel layers of the past, and different versions of the truth: the characters learn
that if you look too closely at anything - the past, the truth - it may crumble. Contains strong
language. TB 17168.

Murakami, Haruki
The elephant vanishes. 2006. Read by Multiple narrators, 10:43. TB 15975.
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. TB 15975.
Naipaul, Shiva
Beyond the dragon's mouth: stories and pieces. 1984. Read by Ian Craig, 18 hours 40 minutes.
TB 5643.
In 1964 as a young man the author sailed out of Port of Spain harbour, beyond the strait
known as the Dragon's Mouth to the escape he had longed for for over 18 years. Two years
later, while still at Oxford, a fellow student from Trinidad is found dead and the wholeness of
life is broken. A new structure must be built out of the ruins and this construction shines
through the collection of writings that make up the main part of the book. TB 5643.

Narayan, R K
A horse and two goats, and other stories. 1970. Read by Garard Green, 4 hours 50 minutes. TB
1810.
Malgudi series; book 10. Sequel to: The sweet vendor. Short stories full of enchantment by
one of India's most important living novelists. TB 1810.

Nin, Anais
Little birds: erotica. 1990. Read by Lorelei King, 3 hours 51 minutes. TB 8734.
Some passages of a sexual nature may be considered offensive. Glimpses in dream-like
fashion of the subtle or explicit means by which men and women are aroused. Each of the
thirteen vignettes captures a moment of sexual awakening, recognition or fulfilment. Lust,
obsession, fantasy and desire emerge as part of the human condition, as pure or as complex
as any other of its aspects. TB 8734.

Oates, Joyce Carol

Last days. 1985. Read by Maxine Howe, 9 hours 22 minutes. TB 6667.
Short stories that enter into the private world of each of its characters: Saul Morgenstein
who is too smart for any psychiatrist to help, Wendy, who cannot face going to the hospital
where her mother was taken after an accident and the glimpse of an ageing lover in the
street. The second half of the book leaves America for the cities of Eastern Europe, as seen
through the eyes of educated Americans who visit for conferences and are led into less
easily expressed experiences.

O'Brien, Edna
The love object. 1968. Read by Gretel Davis, 6 hours 15 minutes. TB 1200.
Short stories concerned with obsessive love and its disappointments.
O'Faolain, Sean
The talking trees and other stories. 1971. Read by Stephen Jack, 8 hours. TB 1660.
Short stories set in Ireland.

Okri, Ben
Stars of the new curfew. 1989. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 5 hours 59 minutes. TB 9863.
Short stories from the 1991 Booker Prize winner. A succession of flights into the grotesque
and phantasmagoric: a medicine huckster bedevilled by dreams as he touts a panacea called
"Power drug", a hallucinatory horror show, in which a musician is haunted by premonitions
of his girl friend's death. Okri's world is one in which nightmares have become the only
reality. TB 9863.

Paley, Grace
Enormous changes at the last minute. 1975. Read by Stanley Pritchard, 4 hours 35 minutes. TB
2733.
A 'splendidly comic and unladylike' collection of short stories from a contemporary American
writer. TB 2733.

Priestley, J B
The Carfitt Crisis, and two other stories. 1975. Read by Andrew Timothy, 7 hours 5 minutes. TB
2819.
Described by the author as 'entertainments embodying some serious ideas,' and a short
horror story. TB 2819.

Pritchett, V S
The Camberwell beauty. 1974. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 6 hours 14 minutes. TB 2628.
Nine stories, various in mood and circumstance, about those areas where the absurd
cohabits with the rational, reality with fantasy. TB 2628.

Rendell, Ruth
The fever tree and other stories. 1982. Read by Anne White, 7 hours 22 minutes. TB 4479.
Eleven short stories, one a novella, ranging through a variety of reasons for murder and
undermining any comfortable assumptions previously held. TB 4479.
Rendell, Ruth
The new girlfriend and other stories. 1985. Read by Pauline Munro, 5 hours 22 minutes. TB
6033.
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. TB 6033.

Rhys, Jean
Sleep it off lady. 1976. Read by Vivien Creegor, 4 hours 7 minute4s. TB 5402.
A collection of sixteen stories beginning and ending in Dominica, the West Indian island
where Jean Rhys was born. TB 5402.

Ross, Bess
A bit of crack and car culture and other stories. 1990. Read by Brigit Forsyth, 3 hours 44
minutes. TB 9597.
This is a 'village of stories', rooted in the stark shore-line community in Ross-shire: real
people engaged in the day to day struggles, joys and vanities of life. TB 9597.

Sagan, Francoise
Incidental music. 1985. Read by Carol Marsh, 3 hours 58 minutes. TB 6120.
Twelve tales of love discovered and love lost, love disowned and love betrayed - stories of
charm and tenderness with an ironic twist in the tail, most set in the superficial world of
wealthy Parisian society. TB 6120.

Saki
The chronicles of Clovis. 1911. Read by Andrew Timothy, 14 hours 45 minutes. TB 2462.
A selection of stories from the Chronicles of Clovis.

Sayers, Dorothy L
Hangman's holiday. 1996. Read by Ian Carmichael, 6 hours 38 minutes. TB 10889.
Lord Peter Wimsey, the delightful detective, is a familiar and popular character but, also
introduced is the incredible Mr Egg, salesman extraordinaire, whose powers of deduction, if
they don't surpass, at least equal those of Lord Peter. This collection of stories is one of the
most interesting, for its blend of the new and the old, yet still retaining the essential charm
that has captivated her many readers over the years. TB 10889.
Schroeder, Adam Lewis
Kingdom of monkeys. 2001. Read by Dorothy Hayward, 6 hours 7 minutes. TB 17691.
Charting the jungles and depths of the South Seas, these stories delve into the lives of a
Malay boy in 19th-century Singapore, a Dutch painter in wartime Bali, an opium-smoking
porter in modern-day Thailand, and others, offering an exposé of colonial power in Asia, as
well as a voyage across its culture, religion, and landscape. Contains strong language. TB
17691.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis

The image and other stories. 1986. Read by Maxine Howe, 9 hours 22 minutes. TB 6387.
Another 22 stories, set in contemporary America and pre-war Warsaw, from a Nobel
Prizewinner. They tell of miracles and tests of faith - "the mad hurricane of human passions
and the struggle with them". TB 6387.

Smith, Iain Crichton

Murdo, and other stories. 1981. Read by William Abney, 5 hours 45 minutes. TB 4120.
A collection of short stories in which the author displays a poetic and anarchic talent. TB
4120.

Spring, Howard
Eleven stories & a beginning. 1973. Read by Peter Gray, 9 hours 52 minutes. TB 2188.
A collection, published posthumously, of short stories and the beginning of an unfinished
novel. TB 2188.

Standish, Robert
Elephant law, and other stories. 1969. Read by Marvin Kane, 6 hours 49 minutes. TB 1025.
Twelve short stories set in Ceylon, the Far East, Europe and Canada. TB 1025.

Stern, James
The stories of James Stern. 1968. Read by George Hagan, 12 hours. TB 589.
Satirical sketches of upper-class behaviour, compassionate gestures towards the under-
privileged, and a keen interest in dreams. TB 589.

Stevenson, Robert Louis

Short stories. Read by Robert Trotter, 4 hours 29 minutes. TB 14129.
"The Misadventures of John Nicholson": the only story set by Stevenson in the Scotland of
his own time; the relationship between John and his stern parent reflects his own troubled
relationship with his father. "Will O'The Mill": Will wants to live life to the full but stays
serenely in the mountains growing old and wise, while time and life slip away. "Markheim":
on Christmas Day the dealer lies in his shop, a dagger in his breast. Upstairs, Markheim
searches for the money for which he has killed. He hears steps on the stairs, and slowly the
door opens ... TB 14129.

Stoker, Bram
Dracula's guest. 1990. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 5 hours 59 minutes. TB 9609.
A collection of nine horror and suspense stories from the author of "Dracula".

Stoker, Bram
Midnight tales. 1990. Read by Patrick Romer, 7 hours 31 minutes. TB 8301.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Beefsteak room at the Lyceum Theatre was
the scene for brilliant and cosmopolitan gatherings hosted by Sir Henry Irving. Irving and his
guests told strange tales of far-distant places. Bram Stoker was Irving's manager during these
years and these conversations provided him with the inspiration for his classic horror fiction
"Dracula". Contains violence. TB 8301.

Swift, Graham
Learning to swim and other stories. 1982. Read by Antony Higginson, 6 hours 47 minutes. TB
6455.
Graham Swift's 11 analytical, yet enigmatic, stories explore the enclosed worlds in which we
confine our lives: sexual and familial enclosures with their tensions and rifts; refuges built of
illusion and deception; the traps of obsession and the falsehood of erroneous authority. TB
6455.

Symons, Julian
The tigers of Subtopia and other stories. 1982. Read by Tom Crowe, 6 hours 25 minutes. TB
4602.
Eleven stories of murder, blackmail and deceit resolved in most cases by an unexpected
twist in the tail. TB 4602.

Taylor, Elizabeth
The devastating boys, and other stories. 1972. Read by John Richmond, 6 hours 38 minutes. TB
2086.
Short stories about people in search of happiness and their vulnerability.
Theroux, Paul
The London embassy. 1982. Read by Marvin Kane, 8 hours 32 minutes. TB 4533.
The narrator linking these related short stories and thumb - nail sketches is a forty-year old
diplomat, newly appointed as Political Officer to the American Embassy in London. He views
the city and its citizens, with a foreigner's penetrating eye, almost as a stage set holding
together personalities. TB 4533.

Thurber, James
The middle-aged man on the flying trapeze. 1992. Read by William Roberts, 5 hours and 45
minutes. TB 9827.
Thirty six short pieces described by the author as "mainly humorous, but with a few kind of
sad ones mixed in". First published in 1935, this volume contains some hilarious classic
essays about language and people. TB 9827.

Trevor, William
Angels at the Ritz, and other stories. 1975. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 08:15. TB 2881.
Twelve stories in which ordinary people find themselves in extraordinary situations.

Trevor, William
Family sins & other stories. 1990. Read by Marie McCarthy, 8 hours 2 minutes. TB 10311.
The intimacy which masks the most significant secrets and motives; the casualties of
bereavement; the foibles of human nature; the compromises made for gain; the victims by
nature of birth; the poverty of life without love; these are some of the subjects around
which William Trevor weaves magic.TB 10311.

Updike, John
Pigeon feathers and other stories. 1993. Read by Hayward Morse, 8 hours 43 minutes. TB
10019.
The theme of memory runs through this collection of short stories and for many of the
characters the past is a miraculous land perpetually in need of rediscovery. The stories
concern an America where most are exiles and moving automobiles contain a lot of their
lives. They move from comic romance to sombre monologue, by way of soliloquies delivered
by an angel, an AP clerk and a lifeguard; and dialogues between man and his wife, a man and
his child, a boy and his mother, a boy and his minister and several quests and hosts. The
setting is generally Pensylvania. TB 10019.
Waugh, Evelyn
The ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, and other stories. 1989. Read by Michael Lumsden, 6 hours 18
minutes. TB 10264.
"The ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold" is the terrifying story of a novelist whose imagination turns on
and engulfs him. A semi-autobiographical depiction of a brief time of insanity, it is one of
Waugh's most disturbing pieces and shows what a fragile thing mastery can prove to be.
There are also two short pieces "Tactical exercise" and "Love among the ruins". TB 10264.

Weldon, Fay
Polaris and other stories. 1985. Read by David Sinclair, 8 hours 18 minutes. TB 5909.
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. TB 5909.

Weldon, Fay
A hard time to be a father.1998. Read by Charlotte Stevens, 7 hours 50 minutes. TB 11745.
A collection of nineteen tales about the way we live now, as lovers, partners, children,
parents. Or alone. Stories of passion, desire, and necessary restraint; of the near future, the
recent past; of old habits, new technology; of won't-be mothers and would-be fathers; and
of houses, ancient and modern. Contains strong language. TB 11745.

Wells, H G
Complete short stories. 1927. Read by Michael de Morgan, 30 hours. TB 1621.
Stories packed with humour, strangeness, horror and imagination. TB 1621.

Welty, Eudora
The collected stories of Eudora Welty. 1981. Read by Marvin Kane, 28 hours 52 minutes. TB
4349.
A collection of all Eudora Welty's short stories from the earliest Death of a Travelling
Salesman, published in 1936 in `a little magazine', to a couple not yet in the collection. The
settings of her stories are wide ranging but all coloured by her life in Jackson, Mississippi,
where the present is moulded so often by the past. TB 4349.
Wharton, Edith
The ghost stories of Edith Wharton. 1975. Read by Peter Gray, 12 hours. TB 3078.
Stories of mystery written by the author over the years 1904 and 1937, inspired partly by the
fear of ghosts she experienced as a small child. Set in the bleak mansions of England,
America, and Normandy, eleven classic tales depict the terrors of persons confronted by
unearthly entities.

Wilde, Oscar
Lord Arthur Savile's crime, and other short stories. 2008. Read by Derek Jacobi, 6 hours 44
minutes. TB 16482.
Lord Arthur Savile, a rich man with no enemies, finds that he must do something terrible
before he can marry. Poor young Hughie Erskine gives money to a beggar who is not what he
seems, and Lord Murchison falls in love with a mystery woman.

Yates, Dornford
Berry and co. 1921. Read by Robin Holmes, 10 hours 21 minutes. TB 3115.
Bertram "Berry" Pleydell series: book 1. The hilarious incidents in the life of Berry and family.

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