Introduction

I’ve been the filter reader for the Willesden Herald short story competition and its New Short Stories book series for getting on for 20 years. In selecting stories here, I decided not to include any by those contributors or by the judges or any of my friends, as I love them all and couldn’t choose.

Beyond childhood reading, Phibsboro Library in Dublin introduced me to The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud and collections by William Saroyan, James Thurber, Turgenev and Pushkin. I went on to absorb short fiction by Beckett, Joyce and J. P. Donleavy. I remember loving the stories of Neil Jordan, Fred Johnston and others from the weekly New Irish Writing pages edited by David Marcus every Saturday in The Irish Press.

A confession: I don’t remember much about most stories a few weeks after reading them. In most cases, all I recall is how enjoyable they were, the mood, the setting and an ever-vaguer outline of the plot. I keep a general impression of the characters though, including the narrator, as if I had met them in person.

The short stories I selected for this anthology are ones that come readily to mind and that I remember better than the rest, ones that left me with that glowing sense of wonder, almost a physical effect like a rush of some pleasure hormone, to which I am addicted.