Skip to main content
Call-out for Short Stories
ANDY HEDGECOCK invites readers to contribute short fiction to our arts pages, offers some guidance and picks a few favourites

IN the summer of my 15th year, in a room with a view of Loch Linnhe, I read The Sixth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. I had no presentiment of the enduring influence of this 35p paperback.

I still have my copy: it includes six well-written and entertaining excursions into the supernatural and two explorations of more ambiguous territory: The Door In The Wall by HG Wells, and The Grey Ones by JB Priestley. These stories have several features in common. They were written by socialists, they undermined the anthology’s title by failing to include a single ghost and – more significantly – they are narratives of transcendent complexity and weird resonance.

For me, as a teenage reader, they were a revelation. In a few thousand words – without breaking the spell of their relentlessly engaging plots – their authors played with structure, language and symbol to challenge perception and provoke speculation.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Book Review / 25 March 2025
25 March 2025
ANDREW HEDGECOCK relishes visual storytelling with no respect for genres, movements or styles
Exhibition review / 20 February 2025
20 February 2025
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
Culture / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
Two books and a film that examine cultural excavation and the impact of place on behaviour
Opinion / 5 April 2024
5 April 2024
ANDY HEDGECOCK explores the implications of a recent statistical study of music lyrics that highlights the role of monopoly capital in silencing complexity
Similar stories
Call for short stories / 4 March 2025
4 March 2025
We want to publish work that lights up the page
Short Story / 10 January 2025
10 January 2025
Anna flees the floods and fires of Earth, but life as a migrant worker on Ganglian-A is grim and exploitative. Her plan of escape is simple and, paradoxically, rocket science
Books / 24 September 2024
24 September 2024
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes a fine collection that demonstrates the short story’s relevance as entertainment, provocation and survival strategy
Book Review / 6 May 2024
6 May 2024
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a fiction that offers luminous insights into the complexities of being human