''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 TimesA spectacular treasury of the best British short stories published in the last twenty yearsWe are living in a particularly rich period for British short storiesDespite 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.LKennedy, Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jackie Kay, Graham Swift, Jane Gardam, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman,