Short stories

Mango and Sticky Rice

This is my first collection of short stories. I enjoy story writing because it's an opportunity to experiment with different styles. And it's a chance, too, to take real events that I have observed and turn them into self-contained dramas. Because they're taken from life, most of the stories in this book are set in Thailand, or at least have a connection with the place. That doesn't mean they're all 'true'; they're not. More often than not, I'll start with some amusing scene I've observed – in a bar, say – and extrapolate from there. How did those people get to be there? What will they do next? Why? What does that tell us about our own lives? And so on.

"William Peskett has a quick eye to evaluate situations and people and is always able to find something extraordinary in the normal."

Michaela, Amazon

Mist on the Jungle

"I was absolutely stunned by 'The Mist on the Jungle' – especially the title story."

Michaela, Amazon

This is the companion volume to Mango and Sticky Rice. The stories were written more or less at the same time. Some of the same characters from Mango turn up again in this collection. I wrote the second Kress & Stein story, for example, as a deliberate means of connecting the two books together. Now I like the character so much I am tempted to resurrect Mr Kress in a third collection. The title story (and, incidentally, the cover photograph) came out of a real rainy-season journey through southern Thailand. The mist that blanketed everything seemed a suitable metaphor for a certain way of thinking that's common in these parts.

Sweet Song of the Siren

This is my third collection of short stories. Nearly all of them are set in Thailand, but that doesn't mean they are the standard Thai bar scene tales. These are the stories of a wide range of people, locals and foreigners, men and women, humans and non-humans. They are told from a variety of perspectives and, I hope, will elicit a range of emotions. Some should have you puzzled, at least for a while; many should make you smile; you might even laugh out loud; I hope that you might shed a tear at least once.

"Author Peskett turns the narrative upside down and sometimes inside out."

Pattaya Mail

The Day of the Tiger

"While most of the tales are sombre and often deeply thought-provoking, there is humour as well."

The Nation, Bangkok

I really never thought I'd write four collections of short stories, but many of the tales in this new book presented themselves to me from real life and begged to be written. That means that, however bizarre they may have ended up, some stories are based on events that actually happened. But which? Was it the old man who loses his shorts or the businessman who hires a private detective to bribe a politician? You know it wasn't the one about the last two people on Earth. But was it the grumpy expat planter who falls out with a visitor from home, or the woman who has always wanted to fly but doesn't quite make it? You decide.

The short story collections above are all available as ebooks, paperbacks and hardbacks. Day of the Tiger is also available as an audiobook, read by Kate Shrewsday. For binge-readers and other extremists, the first and second omnibuses combine books 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 respectively. Every Short Story contains all 44 tales.