A Dill Pickle (Penguin Archive)

She drew a long, soft breath, as though the paper daffodils between them were almost too sweet to bear

Katherine Mansfield was a magician of the short story, whose work was described by Virginia Woolf as ‘the only writing I have ever been jealous of’. These eight tales show her gift for transforming fleeting moments – a chance meeting, a letter received, a careless remark – into small miracles of language and feeling.