let's name some great short stories - I'll kick off...

[harpomarx]

with The Diamond as Big as The Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Had read all his novels but this really stuck in my mind.

Also just about anything by Borges, J G Ballard, Julio Cortázar. I could go on, but I'll let you lot have a go too!

Just read a fantastic collection that I was bought for Christmas - The Loudest Sound and Nothing: Clare Wigfall. Highly recommended. The jacket blurb says "natural successor to Helen Simpson" but her range is much, much wider than Simpson's (note: I love Helen Simpson too, but she does have a particular focus, and this collection is completely different).

Helen Simpson doesn't like men very much, it seems from her stories. She comes across as a bit nasty and spiteful in places.

Shena Mackay is a good short story writer.

And one of the best SF short stories I have read is Robert Silverberg's "What We Learned From This Morning's Newspaper".

The only short story I can remember is The Landlady