Short stories are not as popular as they used to be... in fact I can think of just a couple of modern collections I have read in the last few years (by Ian McEwan and Sebastian Faulkes I think). For some reason we didn't study any poetry for O level (no Shakespeare either... more on that in due course), but instead read this collection of short stories compiled especially for the exam board in 1977.
I enjoyed rereading Notes For a Case History by Doris Lessing - a story of a young woman who aims to rise about her working class roots but doesn't quite succeed. And An Old Woman and her Cat is the timeless tale of an independent old woman who falls between the cracks of the welfare state. Her adopted cat fares slightly better... but not for long. Re-reading these stories reminded me that I used to love Doris Lessing's writing, especially her science fiction series Canopus in Argos... my copies have long since been taken to the charity shop alas.
I also loved re-familiarising myself with two Jazz Age stories from F Scott Fitzgerald. But why did it take me so long to read The Great Gatsby? I must have been 30 before I read it for the first time.
I enjoyed re-reading Winter Cruise by Somerset Maugham, a lively tale of a middle-aged woman who finds love on a cruise... I never progressed with any other of his novels as far as I can remember.
Interestingly, William Sansom is a writer I am planning to discover. He is best known now for his stories of WW2 London (he was a fireman during the Blitz) and featured in The Love Charm of Bombs, a fascinating account of writers in wartime London by Laura Feigel, which I greatly enjoyed
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