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It is a paradox that telling stories must be one of mankind's most ancient activities, yet the writing of short prose stories is a comparatively modern art. In his first essay, Mr Beachcroft considers the English short story historically, showing the various treatments and forms that gradually move towards the modern short story. In doing this he has an eye for certain enduring moods and themes which offer comparison and contrast with the work of modern writers.

The essay traces the short story or the forms that correspond to it from ancient and mediaeval times through the Elizabethan collections and the essay writers of the eighteenth century until the short story begins to take a more modern shape in the nineteenth century. The great Victorian masters of fiction were primarily the authors of long novels, but they in turn added to the form. It is when we reach the earliest work of Robert Louis Stevenson that we see a new unity of image and event that brings us to the modern short story. Mr Beachcroft will consider in detail the work of the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century writers in a second and final essay.

Mr Beachcroft is known especially for his own short stories which have been included in many anthologies since the nineteen twenties. He was the first General Editor of the series Writers and Their Work.