From Under the Overcoat

A collection of new stories (all accessible, emotive, vivid), each celebrating and saluting a remarkable short story from times past. The new stories are modern and entertaining in their own right - this collection can be read purely for the pleasure in that; however, it can also be read for the way each story explores elements from important stories from the past. As such, this book celebrates the short-story form and earlier writers, it offers a guessing game for readers to work out exactly which stories are being drawn on and points us back to these earlier works and to the changes that time has brought in the way we view them. It offers up a canon of influential short stories (with notes on each), with particular appeal to schools and universities. So what on one level is a stunning collection of short stories also offers numerous other levels.