Mary Shelley

Daniel Defoe

Aphra Behn

These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language.

Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind. These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical definition is the UK mainland and the island of Ireland - and wrote in a familiar form of English.

We add further depth with many stories by authors who were famed and fawned over in their day. Some wrote only a hidden gem or two before succumbing to poverty and death. There was no second career as a game show guest, reality TV contestant or youtuber. They remain almost forgotten outposts of talent who never prospered despite devoted hours of pen and brain.

Keeping to a chronological order helps us to highlight how authors through the ages played around with characters and narrative to achieve distinctive results across many scenarios, many styles and many genres. The short story became a sort of literary laboratory, an early disruptor, of how to present and how to appeal to a growing audience as a reflection of social and societal changes. Was this bound to happen or did a growing population that could read begin to influence rather than just accept?

Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles. From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache. If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it. 

At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience’s attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits. 

Track Listing of Volume 1: The Unfortunate Bride by Aphra Behn; The History of the Pirates by Daniel Defoe; Directions to Servants (Footman & Chambermaid) by Jonathan Swift; The Female Husband by Henry Fielding; Betty, The Orange Girl by Hannah More; The Changeling by Mary Lamb; The White Pigeon by Maria Edgeworth; The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott; The Sea Voyage by Charles Lamb;

The Metropolitan Emigrant by John Galt; The Spectre of Tappington by Richard Harris Barham; The Mourner by Mary Shelley

Miniature Masterpiece

The Short Stories of the British Isles: Volume 1 - Aphra Behn to Mary Shelley: Some of the best stories written in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales