Anthology of twentieth-century short stories, presented chronologically, by authors ranging from Saki to Graham Greene, Angela Carter and Richard Crompton.

This is an anthology of modern comic non-fiction (selected from memoirs, reviews, newspaper columns, etc), ranging from G.K. Chesterton through Stephen Potter to Clive James and Miles Kington. Like Patricia Craigs other compilation, The Penguin Book of British Comic Stories, the pieces are chosen to illustrate a specifically British (and Irish) kind of humorous approach to the world, and the choice is supported with a critical introduction.

This is the story of strip cartoons since comics began, of the artists who created the characters, and of the characters who took charge of their creators. Here you'll find the true tale of Jane and Flook, of Popeye, Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, and L'il Abner, of Tarzan and Captain America and Peanuts, and of all the characters who live in cages but rule the world ... or the better half of it. In this sumptuous, new and supercharged edition of a now classic book George Perry has updated the original text and Alan Aldridge has provided further evidence of his graphic brilliance and keen eye for social history. This is the book that recalls the old-time childhood magic, yet succinctly defines the new, sharp, cool power the comics exert on today's adult world.

This anthology is in many was a ‘best of the best’, containing gems from thirty-four of Britain's outstanding contemporary writers. It is a book to dip into, to read from cover to cover, to lend to friends and read again. It includes stories of love and crime, stories touched with comedy and the supernatural, stories set in London, Los Angeles, Bucharest and Tokyo. Above all, as you will discover, it satisfies Samuel Butler's anarchic pleasure principle: 'I should like to like Schumann's music better than I do; I daresay I could make myself like it better if I tried; but I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all ...'