Best British Short Stories 2019

  ‘'Some books come to feel as if they belong to you alone. And then you find yourself face to face with the person who made them, and what are you supposed to do?''
Another beautiful stop to the exciting universe of the British Short Story.
These are my favourite stories in another fascinating collection edited by Nicholas Royle: 
The Husband and the Wife Go to the Seaside (Melissa Wan): A married couple needs a change. But from what and to what end? This is for the reader to decide...
Cuts (Stephen Sharp): An almost surreal nightmare that makes much more sense than it seems, terrifying in its reality. Seven pages of scattered facts and stream-of-consciousness and pure literary brilliance.
The Heights of Sleep (Sam Thompson): A moving account of the unique ‘bond' between readers and their favourite writers.
Nude and Seascape (Ann Quin): I am sure most readers would react quite dramatically when faced with this story's utter cruelty and perversion. I loved it. And I don't know what this shows about me...
On the Way to Church (Vicky Grut): A couple arrives in the husband's hometown for the christening of their son. A tender story about the secrets that lurk within a household and the impact of unexpected news.
‘'The man two doors down pursues a secret hobby in the dead of night. This is one of your first discoveries.''
Cluster (Naomi Booth): A sleep-deprived mother witnesses the shady actions that take place in the hours before dawn, hidden in the dark alleys of Leeds.
Smack (Julia Armfield): A jellyfish becomes a telling metaphor for a marriage that has fallen apart and a woman that has decided to chase shadows in her loneliness.
Badgerface (Lucie McKnight Hardy): The moving, haunting story of a return and a wound that can't be healed.
‘'She remembers her mother showing her how to make paper dolls, but they always ended up separate instead of joining together.''
Optics (Ren Watson): In a wonderfully eerie and cryptic story, a young mother thinks that her daughter is slowly fading away. Is it a matter of optics? Is it her wild imagination? Or is there something sinister at play?
A Gift of Tongues (Paul McQuade): A woman has to put up with the strange gift of her German boyfriend. She has accepted a new tongue as a loving present. Literally. He doesn't want to communicate in English so she HAS TO change. But things don't go as they've planned and her identity is destroyed. A story with hundreds of metaphors and underlying themes for discussion.
New Dawn Fades (Sophie Mackintosh): A haunting story about our compulsive need to summon the most terrible ghosts once the night has fallen...
‘'You are being haunted by yourself, you think half-seriously, considering the mystery of the screen. You are your own worst ghost.''