Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

In this volume we come up against the definition of Northern Europe. There are many, each with plausibility and each so obvious. So, here’s ours.

1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - Northern Europe - An Introduction

2 - The Nursemaid by Minna Canth

3 - Photographer and Philosopher by August Strindberg

4 - An Arch Rascal by Knut Hamsun

5 - A Dry Spell by Eimar H Kvaran

6 - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Part 1 by Oscar Wilde

7 - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Part 2 by Oscar Wilde

8 - Mistress Bine by Cornelia Levetzow

9 - The Story of a Mother by Hans Christian Anderson

10 - N by Arthur Machen

11 - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - Part 1 by Robert Louis Stevenson

12 - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - Part 2 by Robert Louis Stevenson

13 - Man Size In Marble by Edith Nesbit