The second volume of the Penguin Book of the British Short Story presents spectacular writings from a variety of talented, brilliant authors across generations of writers. This list includes writing legends like P. G. Wodehouse, V. S. Naipaul, W. Somerset Maugham, Roald Dahl, Doris Lessing to contemporary geniuses such as Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith to name a few. Because of this book, I was introduced to more such authors who are not so famous may be in my corner of the world, but they are tremendously good and I am so happy that I got to read their stories.

There are reasons why short stories are so popular across age groups and geographic boundaries; one of the main reason being that despite their compact size, they manage to convey the storyline so vividly. So, all those stories which find their place in the said volume are no different. Their word count may differ, certainly their time period and places might differ but what binds them together really is how they bring forth nuances from their familiar settings and everyday characters.

The book starts from ‘Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court’ by P. G. Wodehouse which like his all other works put an instant smile on your face. And then you have some amazing stories such as ‘Cruise’ Evelyn Waugh, ‘Old Sweat’ by Leslie Halward, ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ by Sylvia Townsend Warner and ‘Winter Cruise’ by W. Somerset Maugham. ‘Death of a Comrade’ by Julian Maclaren-Ross and ‘Private Jones’ by Alun Lewis, both give a different take on juniors in army. On the other hand is a story titled ‘Someone Like You’ by Roald Dahl takes you on the other side of War, that is being a war veteran and trying to adjust to normal, peacetime life. Alasdair Gray’s ‘Five Letters from an Eastern Empire’ is another one of those stories with quirky plots which is not to be missed. Some more brilliantly executed stories include ‘Cardboard City’ by Shena Mackay and ‘Phonefun Limited’ by Bernard MacLaverty. The final story, concluding this volume is ‘The Embassy of Cambodia’ by Zadie Smith and this small work certainly gives you a glimpse into the powerhouse of talent that she is.

It is certainly a difficult task to pick out a favourite story from such a vivid, brilliant pool of penmanship. So if I have to choose one from this collection then it would be ‘Red Rubber Gloves’ written by Christine Brooke-Rose. This is a story of normal suburban places with people going about their everyday lives but with a final twist, which when arrives completely blindsides us and lends a spine chilling turn to a regular, mundane storyline. While reading this, you are reminded of similar famous stories from other authors but mentioning them will be giving away much of the plot.

All-in-all, this book is highly recommended read for anyone loving a good story no matter what’s the length or how many characters it fits in. On my part, I am definitely going to pick up next volume in this series for my TBR list.