The Short Story Podcast

Small Pleasures Episode 8 Jon McGregor’s The Singing

A consummately skilful and nuanced short story about loss.

Small Pleasures Episode 7 Anna Seghers’ The Dead Girls Class Trip

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

Small Pleasures Episode 6: Leila Aboulela’s ’Missing Out’

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’

'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 Episode 4: Sheila Armstrong ’Red Market’

Small Pleasures Ep 3: Tessa Hadley’s ’Bad dreams’

'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’

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’

‘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).