Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages 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 new century expansion and turbulence are competing forces. Society is ripe for change, the elite are not. In this fertile ground these very talented authors grabbed literature by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into new directions and new forms.

1 - The Top 10 - The 1900's - The Men - An Introduction

2 - Gift of the Magi by O Henry

3 - Her Lover by Maxim Gorky

4 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James

5 - To Build a Fire by Jack London

6 - The Fly In The Ointment by D H Lawrence

7 - The Scapegoat by Paul Laurence Dunbar

8 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood

9 - The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson

10 - Silence by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev

11 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain