Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

The zenith of Empire is bookended by two catastrophic wars that slaughter vast swathes of humanity. And yet authors manage to record and create fragile libraries of humanity, its talents, its dreams and increasingly its nightmares.

01 - The 20th Century - The English Men - An Introduction

02 - They by Rudyard Kipling

03 - The Rocking Horse Winner by D H Lawrence

04 - The Interlopers by Saki the pseudonym for H H Munro

05 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain

06 - The Juryman by John Galsworthy

07 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood

08 - The Haunted Orchard by Richard Le Gallienne

09 - Carnacki, The Ghost Finder - No 1 - The Gateway of the Monster by William Hope Hodgson

10 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James

11 - August Heat by W F Harvey

12 - The Matador of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett