Introduction

Having been a keen reader and writer of short stories for thirty years, I find myself quite unable to produce a list of the twelve best. Possibly I could manage this several times over, if I set up particular categories: best science fiction, best horror, best naturalism, and so on. But how do you compare J.G. Ballard to Claire Keegan, or Ursula K. Le Guin to David Constantine? How, more importantly, do you choose between them if it’s the very diversity of the form that most appeals to you? Chewing my pencil over this, I decided to change tack. I read a lot of short stories and often enjoy them (I’m easily pleased), but most of the time I can’t remember much about them a few months later. Perhaps my criterion for selecting a personal anthology ought to rely on memorability: on choosing stories that, for one reason or another, have made a lasting impression on me. Most writers want to leave a dent in the reader’s mind; here are twelve stories that have done that with mine.