Tag: writing

A Personal Anthology

A Personal Anthology is a short story project run by the writer Jonathan Gibbs. Each week he asks a guest editor to choose their twelve favourite short stories and write about them. It was a big challenge to come up with my list – it contains a few familiar names, but also I hope one or two surprises. You can read it here.

Publication Day!

It’s publication day for Best British Short Stories 2025, which includes my story ‘Ghost Walks’! Available from all good bookshops, or from the publisher Salt Books.

Here’s what the Manchester Review had to say about my story:

“Another unusually surprising story was Ian Critchley’s ‘Ghost Walks’, telling the story of a woman having a moment of Déjà vu as she revisits York, where she once spent her student days and met her future husband. What, at surface level, can be read as a deceptively simple ghost story turns into a complex exploration of identity, marriage and retrospection on the lives we thought we would live in the halcyon days of youth.”

Best British Short Stories 2025

Absolutely chuffed to bits to announce that my story ‘Ghost Walks’, originally published by The Fiction Desk, is included in this year’s Best British Short Stories, the prestigious anthology of the year’s best short stories, published annually by Salt Publishing.

It’s not published until November, but until 31 July it can be pre-ordered from Waterstones for a massive 25% discount: https://www.waterstones.com/book/best-british-short-stories-2025/nicholas-royle/david-bevan/9781784633530

Removals Reviews

‘What a clever, intriguing chapbook by Ian Critchley. ‘Removals’, published by Nightjar Press achieves so much in just a few pages. Draws you in, then pulls you somewhere else and cleverly turns you back on yourself. Like fine tailoring: precise, deceptive, with the seams hidden.’ Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul

‘With its crisp, humorous prose and excellent dialogue, in less than eight pages Ian Critchley’s Removals (2024) manages to pose a tempting question about life, the universe and everything that might have you thinking for days’ Giselle Leeb, Interzone

‘an eerie and compelling short story’ Margo Laurie, Goodreads, 5 stars

‘A magnificently eerie story’ David Harris, Blue Book Balloon; also 5 star review on Goodreads

‘Another terrific title from Nightjar Press; a crisply effective chiller from the excellent Ian Critchley’ Andy Humphrey

Published by Nightjar Press. Buy here

The Nightjar Has Landed

Delighted to say that my short story chapbook, ‘Removals’, has now been published by Nightjar Press. Such a thrill to be part of this brilliant series of stories, described by the press as having ‘something of the uncanny or the gothic or the dark, strange, weird, wonderful’ about them.

The fantastic cover image, so apt for the story, is by Nicholas Royle, Nightjar Press’s publisher, and himself a superb short story writer and champion of the form.

The chapbook can be bought from the publisher’s website: https://nightjarpress.weebly.com