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  Frau Fischer

  Katherine Mansfield

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  In Frau Fischer by Katherine Mansfield we have the theme of independence, letting go, acceptance change, trust, control, gender roles and conflict. Taken from her In a German Pension collection the story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed British woman and after reading the story the reader realises that Mansfield may be exploring the theme of independence.

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  The Man Without a Temperament

  Katherine Mansfield

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  "The Man Without a Temperament" is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Arts and Letters in Spring 1920, and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.
  Mrs Jinnie Salesby has tea with her husband, Robert. She receives a letter from Lottie, who is suffering from neuritis. In her letter, she explains it is snowing in London. Then The Honeymoon Couple come back from fishing. The Salesbys go for a turn; she stops and sits while he goes on for a longer walk.

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  The Viy

  Nikolai Gogol

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  "The Viy" is a horror novella by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, first published in the first volume of his collection of tales entitled Mirgorod (1835). The title is also the name of the demonic entity central to the plot.
  Every summer, there is usually a large procession of all the students moving around the area as they travel home. However, the group is reduced to three students: the theologian Khaliava, the philosopher Khoma Brut, and the rhetorician Tibery Gorobets.
  As the night draws in, the students hope to find a village near the main road where they can find some rest and food. However, they become lost in the wilderness, eventually coming upon two small houses and a farm. An older woman there tells them she has a little room and cannot accommodate any more travelers, but she eventually agrees to let them stay.
  At night, the woman comes to Khoma. At first, he thinks she is trying to seduce him, but then she draws closer and he sees that her eyes are glowing strangely. She leaps on his back, and he reluctantly finds himself galloping with her all over the countryside with a strength he previously never knew. He eventually slows the witch by chanting exorcisms out loud, and then rides on her back and later picks up a piece of wood and beats her as punishment. The older woman later collapses, and he discovers she has turned into a beautiful girl.
  Khoma runs away to Kyiv and resumes his easy life, when a rumor reaches his dean that a rich cossack's daughter was found crawling home near death, her last wish being for Khoma the philosopher to come and read psalms over her corpse for three nights after her death.

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  Teddy Roosevelt The Rough Riders...

  Teddy Roosevelt

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  The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and disorganized in comparison to its status during the American Civil War roughly thirty years prior. Following the sinking of USS Maine, President William McKinley needed to muster a strong ground force swiftly, which he did by calling for 125,000 volunteers to assist in the war. The U.S. had gone to war in opposition to Spanish colonial policies in Cuba, which was then torn by a rebellion.[1] The regiment was also nicknamed "Wood's Weary Walkers" for its first commander, Colonel Leonard Wood. This reflected their dissatisfaction that despite being cavalry, they ended up fighting in Cuba as infantry since their horses were not sent there with them. 
   
  Wood's second in command was former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, a strong advocate for the Cuban War of Independence. When Wood was promoted to become commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, the regiment became known as "Roosevelt's Rough Riders." That term was borrowed from Buffalo Bill, who called his traveling Western show "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World." 
   
  The original plan called for the regiment to be composed of frontiersmen from the Indian Territory, the New Mexico Territory, the Arizona Territory, and the Oklahoma Territory. However, after Roosevelt joined the ranks, it attracted an odd mixture of Ivy League athletes, glee club singers, Texas Rangers, and Native Americans. All accepted into the regiment had to be skilled horsemen and eager to see combat. The Rough Riders would receive more publicity than any other Army unit in that war, and they are best remembered for their conduct during the Battle of San Juan Hill.

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  Dies Irae - From their pens to...

  Kenneth Grahame

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  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.

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

  Washington Irving

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving is a captivating and timeless tale that transports readers to a bygone era of superstition and ghostly folklore.  
  The story follows Ichabod Crane, a bumbling but endearing schoolteacher, as he becomes entranced by the haunting legend of the Headless Horseman, a phantom rider who terrorises the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving's lyrical and evocative prose paints a vivid picture of a world where reality and myth intertwine, where reason gives way to fear and imagination. As Ichabod's obsession with the legend grows, the stage is set for a thrilling and unforgettable encounter with the ghostly apparition, leaving readers breathless and captivated until the very end. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a masterful work of fiction that continues to enchant and enthral readers of all ages. 
  This new audio edition is brought to life for 21st century audiences by narrator Jake Urry.

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