By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The English writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), who is better known under his pen name Saki, was a master of the short comic story and, in some ways, a missing link between Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. What’s more, Saki was that rare writer who could write humorously, for an adult audience, about children without being twee or sentimental.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The City’ is a short story about revenge best served cold. Written by the American author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), the story was included in his 1952 collection The Illustrated Man. The story is about a city which has waited twenty thousand years for man to return so that the city can visit a terrible revenge upon Earth for a past crime.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘There Was a Man, There Was a Woman’ is a short story from Sandra Cisneros’ 1991 collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. In this brief vignette or piece of flash fiction, a narrator describes two people, a man and a woman, who lead similar lives despite never having met each other.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths’ is one of the shortest stories by Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), one of the most original and striking writers of the twentieth century.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Pollock and the Porroh Man’ is a short story by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), first published in the New Budget on 23 May 1895. Set in Africa, it’s a tale of magic, revenge, and adventure, and can perhaps best be categorised as a horror story, with a hint of fantasy.