Other books that might interest you

• 

  Dies Irae - From their pens to...

  Kenneth Grahame

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Kenneth Grahame was born on 8th March 1859 in Edinburgh. 
  At age 5 his mother succumbed to puerperal fever.  His father, who had a drinking problem, now sent his 4 children to live with their grandmother at her large house in Cookham, Berkshire. Here the children lived in large open grounds next to the river.  These early experiences would in later years, be retold in his writing through a myriad of characters. 
  Grahame loved being a pupil at St Edward's School, Oxford and wanted to enroll at the university there but his guardian demurred on account of the cost. 
  Instead, a banking career was chosen for him, starting in 1879 at the Bank of England, where he rose steadily to the rank of its Secretary until retiring, with a pension, in 1908 due to ill health. 
  Alongside his commercial career Grahame had written and published various stories and essays in several periodicals. Some were anthologized as ‘Pagan Papers’ in 1893, and two years later ‘The Golden Age’ and later still ‘Dream Days’ and its masterpiece ‘The Reluctant Dragon’ became part of many home libraries.  His ability to view life through the lens of a young and curious child was superb, enabling the reader to easily identify with the character.   
  Grahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899 and they had one child; Alastair, born semi-blind and plagued by health problems.  In a heart-rending tragedy he would later take his own life whilst attending Oxford University in 1920.   
  In 1908 Grahame reworked many of the bedtime stories he had fashioned for his son into the enduring favourite; ‘The Wind in the Willows’, describing the heart-warming adventures of Mr Toad and his friends.   
  Kenneth Grahame died in Pangbourne, Berkshire, on 6th July 1932.

  Show book

• 

  Clairvoyance - From their pens...

  D K Broster

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Dorothy Kathleen Broster was born on 2nd September 1877 at Devon Lodge in Grassendale Park, Garston, Liverpool. 
  At 16, the family moved to Cheltenham, where she attended Cheltenham Ladies' College and then on to St Hilda’s College, Oxford to read history, where she was one of the first female students, although at this time women were not awarded degrees. 
  Broster served as secretary to Charles Harding Firth, a Professor of History for several years, and collaborated on several of his works. Her first two novels were co-written with a college friend, Gertrude Winifred Taylor. 
  With the Great War interrupting her literary ambitions she served as a Red Cross nurse at a Franco-American hospital, but returned to England with a knee infection in 1916.  
  After the war, she moved near to Battle in East Sussex and took up writing full-time.  
  In 1920 she at last received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Oxford. 
  Her novels, mainly historical fiction, peaked in popularity with ‘The Flight of the Heron’, in 1925, a best-seller followed up by two sequels. 
  As well as poetry and various articles she also wrote several short stories, the best known of which is a classic of weird fiction ‘The Couching at the Door’ in which an artist appears to be haunted by a mysterious entity. 
  An intensely private individual many readers deduced from her name that she was both a man and Scottish. 
  D K Broster died in Bexhill Hospital on 7th February 1950.  She was 73.

  Show book

• 

  Sorrow

  Anton Chekhov

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In Sorrow by Anton Chekhov we have the theme of desperation, struggle, guilt, cruelty, hope, loss and self-pity. Taken from his The Complete Short Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story it becomes clear to the reader that Chekhov may be exploring the theme of desperation.

  Show book

• 

  The Last Train - From their pens...

  Michael Vincent

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Michael Vincent.

  Show book

• 

  Mistress Wilding

  Rafael Sabatini

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Somerset, 1685: a gentleman wins a wife in a quarrel over a toast, Monmouth lands at Lyme with a rabble, and a letter that could hang everyone is in the wrong hands. Sabatini was Italian-born, raised across Europe, spoke five languages and chose to write in English because, he said, all the best stories are told in it; this early novel already has the swordwork and the irony that made Scaramouche.

  Show book

• 

  The Tragedy of Macbeth

  William Shakespeare

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Macbeth and his wife show how bad the evil that can possess human souls is. But evil is not all powerful. On the one hand, Macbeth is the gloomiest of the great Shakespeare's tragedies; on the other hand, it's more encouraging than Hamlet, Othello or King Lear. In no other tragedy as in Macbeth the evil is confronted by so many people, and nowhere else they are so active.
  Shakespeare is the author of the world famous sonnets and plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello, as well as comedies Twelfth Night, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and As You Like It. William Shakespeare is the most performed playwright, the works of the great English poet have been on top of the world theatre stages for some centuries already.

  Show book