Publisher: Carousel Books
A master craftsman brings one of the most fascinating periods in American history to vivid life in these provocative and poignant short stories, which include the masterpieces The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Killian is a drifter, a rail-car-rider, in the summer of '35, when no one can find work and even fewer make a living. But jumping off a train a little too soon one afternoon, he finds himself at the breakfast table of a recently widowed woman – and the recipient of an unexpected gift.A HarperAudio production.Show book
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne’s later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing. He was a mere four years old when his father died and his mother took him and his two sisters to live with her family and then on to their own home in Raymond, Maine. The young Hawthorne had a passion for fiction and poetry and voraciously read the works of Ann Radcliffe, Henry Fielding and Lord Byron. He was sent to college at his maternal uncle’s insistence. During these years he met and befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future U S president Franklin Pierce. These friendships were lifelong and to have a crucial impact on his writings and career. At college Hawthorne had made attempts at writing short stories and essays but without opportunities to publish. It was only in 1828 that he finally published his novel ‘Franshawe’ to little success and so he began work as editor for the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. Hawthorne’s short stories were first published in magazines but in 1837 were collected and published as ‘Twice-Told Tales’. A steady literary career still did not come his way and so he worked in a good position at Salem’s port and married the love of his life Sophia Peabody. They moved to live in ‘The Old Manse’ at Concord, Massachusetts. Finally. in 1850 came spectacular literary and commercial success with ‘The Scarlet Letter’ followed by ‘The House of the Seven Gables’ the following year. In 1852, Hawthorne published a biography of presidential candidate Franklin Pierce. After Pierce’s victory he was appointed consul in Liverpool, a position that offered prestige, money and fame. At the end of this appointment he returned several times to Europe before settling in Massachusetts and resuming writing and publication. During the early 1860’s his health declined and on 19th May 1864 during a trip to Plymouth, New Hampshire. He was 59 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. In his short story ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’ Hawthorne creates a work, now considered early science fiction, that weaves an unrequited life-long love with the creation of a beautiful miniature object that is both breath-taking and heart-breaking.Show book
Victor Marie Hugo was born on 26th February 1802 in Besançon, France. There can be no doubt that Hugo is ranked as the greatest of French authors and poets. In addition to this he fought against social injustice throughout his life and from his frequent elections to the French Assembly. Hugo published his first novel, Han d’Islande (1823), the year after his marriage and so began an immense canon of fiction and poetry not only for France but to World literature. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1841 and the same year came a peerage and entrance to the Higher Chamber as a pair de France, where he spoke against the death penalty, social injustice and in favour of press freedom. In the years leading up to the Revolution of 1848 Hugo began to lean towards Republicanism and greater freedoms. With the formation of the Second Republic, he was again elected to the Assembly. When Napoleon III seized power in 1851, and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. This, of course, meant exile where he remained until 1870. In exile he published his greatest work ‘Les Misérables’, and further widely honoured collections of poetry. Returning home he was again elected to the National Assembly and the Senate. It was the time of the Franco-Prussian war and with Paris under siege and food ever more scarce, he wrote in his diary that he was now "eating the unknown". Later he was instrumental in strengthening the rights of artists and copyright, steps which led to the international protections of the Berne Convention. Victor Hugo died on 22nd May 1885, aged 83. In ‘Claude Gueux’ one prisoner dares to challenge a system and its cruel Governor who takes away his only friend purely out of spite. The consequences are appalling.Show book
“It is important that when you call, you are first completely sure to whom it is you are calling.”I think I can honestly say that, up until the point that it closed temporarily during the global pandemic, I’d had visited The Anchor pub for at least a single pint, virtually every night for the past 45 years.There were, of course, exceptions. In 1992, I had a smash in my car and had to spend a night in the hospital, and midway through 1986 I got married and spent my wedding day and night away from the place. I didn’t visit The Anchor on either of those days, though in the case of my wedding night, half the people who would otherwise have been in the pub joined me at my reception venue, so it was pretty much the same thing anyway.Show book
Jack Pilton continues to spank the ladies in the village of Little Trumpington, but he has fallen for Mary. A new group member, Jenny, the vicar's wife, suggests that they organise a stall at the village fete and offer spankings to any adult at a pound a smack, two pounds if it is on their knickers. There would be no bare-bottom spankings at the fete, or so they thought. Jack needs to find someone to help with the spankings so he asks Terry’s mother, Mrs Grant, who turns out to be an excellent spanker. Finally, Jack proposes to Mary after the fete and she accepts.Show book
"Hathaman wishes to become Super Hathaman - he wants to fly in the sky and walk on water! On the advice of an old yogi, he journeys to Tibet to acquire super powers. Does he get them? This quirky tale by Kaushik Viswanath is illustrated in mixed media by Chetan Sharma (Animagic)."Show book
