Tales from a master's notebook: stories Henry James never wrote

'As stated in the informative foreword by Michael Wood and in the introduction by Philip Horne (who has edited this collection) these short stories by the impressively selected acclaimed authors are based on ideas taken from Henry Jame's writer's notebooks which never materlised further. What is interesting is that all are reflective of the individual author's style rather than being merely derivative which would have inevitably lead to them appearing as mere pastiches. It is often said that the short story format is one of the hardest to successfully master and certainly the addition of these intriguing and interesting tales are certainly feats that can be added to these authors already well regarded repertoire.

In the appendix - Subjects from James Notebook - we usefully discover the source and inspiration of the story's origin. There are ten short stories in this collection, all I found of interest but for me personally there were two that I particularly enjoyed which were "Is Anybody There" by Rose Tremain a classic haunting ghostly tale that has echoes of "The Turn of the Screw" as it is not clear whether this is a supernatural occurrence or the imaginings of the mind and "The Troll" by Philip Home himself which is an increasingly dark tale of being trashed by an anonymous reviewer which as the title suggests has much resonance in today's world of social media.

The book also contains a brief biography of the contributors and a photography of one of Jame's original notes. This has turned out to be a delight for someone like me who enjoys a good short story compilation and also to someone who is interested and enjoys the works of James himself.'