The Short Story Podcast

Small Pleasures Episode 20: Nicholas Royle 'Paris Fantastique' and Other Matters 04.10.2025 23:54 ↓

The marvellous itineraries of Nicholas Royle.

Small Pleasures Episode 19: Sarah Hall 'Mrs Fox' and Jackie Kay 'My Daughter the Fox' 05.05.2025 17:05 ↓

Two fabulous tales.

Small Pleasures Episode 18: Tom Conaghan's 'Reverse Engineering' Anthology 28.09.2024 28:12 ↓

Tom Conaghan’s inspirational anthology, Reverse Engineering, a great resource for writers and teachers!

Small Pleasures Episode 17: Ruby Cowling 'Emeralds Live' 13.03.2024 19:53 ↓

Ruby Cowling's extraordinary realisms

Small Pleasures Episode 16: Michel Faber 'Some Rain Must Fall' and 'The Fahrenheit Twins' 18.02.2024 45:18 ↓

The visionary worlds of Michel Faber.

Small Pleasures Episode 15: Albertine Sarrazin 12.11.2023 34:06 ↓

Two stories of resistance and subversion.

Small Pleasures Episode 14: Ailsa Cox’s Cocky Watchman 01.10.2023 24:33 ↓

A complex and multi-layered short story, about a place haunted by the past.

Small Pleasures Episode 13: Clare Louise Bennett’s Finishing Touch and Control Knobs 18.06.2023 20:02 ↓

A discussion of two great short stories from 'Pond' by Claire-Louise Bennett

Small Pleasures Episode 12 Maxim Osipov’s ’Big Opportunities’ 08.05.2023 18:27 ↓

A short story about a whole nation.

Small Pleasures Episode 11 Louise Erdrich’s ’The Shawl’ 09.04.2023 20:19 ↓

Possibly the best short story ever written...

Small Pleasures Episode 10 Lucia Berlin’s ’Dear Conchi’ 05.03.2023 32:47 ↓

Today we discuss the epistolary short story ‘Dear Conchi’, with our first guest, Lucia Berlin expert, Nina Ellis.

Small Pleasures Episode 9 Idza Luhumyo’s Five Years Next Sunday 22.01.2023 28:24 ↓

The 2022 Caine Prize winning short story from Idza Luhumyo.

Small Pleasures Episode 8 Jon McGregor’s The Singing 18.12.2022 27:04 ↓

A consummately skilful and nuanced short story about loss.

Small Pleasures Episode 7 Anna Seghers’ The Dead Girls Class Trip 13.11.2022 31:22 ↓

A dramatically intense and innovative short story about the devastating effects of Fascism. 

Small Pleasures Episode 6: Leila Aboulela’s ’Missing Out’ 22.10.2022 28:21 ↓

A sensitive and complex story about the pressures on a young couple who move to a foreign country, with a different culture and religious faith.  

Small Pleasures Episode 5: Daniel Mason’s ’Death of the Pugilist’ 11.09.2022 27:55 ↓

'Death of the Pugilist, or the Famous Battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw' is the extraordinary story of a bareknuckle fight in 19th century England.

Small Pleasures Ep 3: Tessa Hadley’s ’Bad dreams’ 24.07.2022 24:20 ↓

'Bad Dreams’ is a supremely skilful and multi-layered short story about how a young girl's nightmare intrudes into reality. Hadley, Tessa, ‘Bad Dreams’ collected in Bad Dreams, (London: Jonathan Cape, 2017).

Small Pleasures Episode 2: Graham Mort’s ’A Walk in the Snow’ 24.07.2022 25:09 ↓

Powerful and brilliant imagery juxtaposes a couple walking in the snow in northern England with the vigil of a mother at her son’s hospital bed in war-torn Iraq. Mort, Graham, ‘A Walk in the Snow’ collected in Touch (Bridgend: Seren, 2010).

Small Pleasures Episode 1: Alice Munro’s ’The Children Stay’ 24.07.2022 28:54 ↓

‘The Children Stay’ is a short story about a young wife who takes the role of Eurydice in an amateur theatrical production, with life-changing consequences. Munro, Alice, ‘The Children Stay’ collected in The Love of a Good Woman (London: Chatto & Windus, 1998).