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  The Wild Rose

  Dilly Court

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  Be swept up in the unforgettable new historical novel from the reader’s favourite. Can Rosina discover the hidden secrets of Moonshadow Manor? 
  When spirited Rosina Wills is driven from her London home by a conniving stepmother, she seeks refuge in the wild heart of Dartmoor. But Moonshadow Manor is a house of secrets—and her ailing Aunt Jane is not the only one in need. 
  As Rosina settles into her new life, she soon realises Moonshadow Manor holds secrets of its own. With every passing day, she uncovers more about her family. But as long-buried truths begin to surface, will Rosina find the answers she’s looking for … or something she never dreamed of? 
  A sweeping, emotional tale of love, loyalty and the strength of a fearless heart. 
  For fans of Annemarie Brear (The Riverside Maid), Anna Jacobs (In Search of Hope), Annie Murray (The Pearl Button Girl), Rosie Clarke (Family Matters at Blackberry Farm), and Lizzie Lane (Tough Times on Coronation Close).

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  Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of...

  Lord Dunsany

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  Lord Dunsany was the progenitor of modern fantasy fiction. From Tolkein to Gaiman, from Le Guin to Moorcock, his words inspired an entire genre of modern dark fantasy.A fun adventure in a Spain that never was, in the vein of Dumas and Stevenson, with more than a taste of Cervantes. Don Rodriguez is a young nobleman who is banished from the family castle, and must set out with his rapier and mandolin to win his own estate, and perhaps even a bride. Along with his trusty servant Morano, he journeys far into the heart of the mythical Shadow Valley. Echoes of The Princess Bride resonate throughout. “How to describe this book? It's a pretty problem. As might a child, after dashing off to play on a bright summer morning—hours splashing in the river, exploring the forests, duelling with sticks against the Infidel (or the child next door if the Infidel be not available), winning a week's pocket-money at marbles and losing it again—as such a child, when asked "what did you do today?" simply shrugs and replies "oh, nothing much"; just so should I feel, dear Reader, were I to attempt to pin down the precise qualities of this book for you. It doesn't wash. And yet I must make the attempt. I can say this much: this is a book to be approached lightly. The magic Lord Dunsany weaves is delicate, and you may raise an eyebrow and start to protest that you know the history of Spain, and the events he relates cannot possibly have taken place in the manner he describes. Moreover the characters in his story are surely stereotypes, mere caricatures, and no such people can possibly have walked those dusty roads, and even if they did they cannot have subsisted merely on bacon. Not possible, you say. But when you read of Morano's noble frying pan, of bacon cooked beneath the stars and eaten at the wayfarer's green table, you might find that you believe in Bacon after all.” [Iain, Goodreads]

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  The Mouthless - A tale from the...

  Marcel Schwob

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  Mayer André Marcel Schwob was born in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, France on 23rd August 1867 into a cultivated Jewish family.  
   
  As a child he devoured the works of Poe and Stevenson in French and then again in English.  His attachment to the bizarre and dark was already forming. 
   
  His education at the Lycée of Nantes earned him the 1st Prize for Excellence.  In 1881, he was in Paris with his maternal uncle to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.  Schwob quickly developed his multilingual abilities and then studied philology and Sanscrit at the École pratique des hautes études before completing his military service in Vannes with the artillery. 
   
  After completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1888 he became a professional journalist and worked for the Phare de la Loire, the Événement and L'Écho de Paris. 
   
  The 1890’s marked his establishment as a brilliant writer with the publication of six short story collections.   
   
  He fell ill in 1896 with a chronic, incurable intestinal disorder.  He also suffered recurring bouts of influenza and pneumonia.  Intestinal surgery was given several times, at first with success but, by 1900, after two more surgeries, he was told that nothing more could be done for him.  Schwob now existed on kefir and fermented milk. 
   
  By the turn of the century, despite failing health, and often too ill to write, he embarked on several long travels, including to Vailima in the South Pacific where his literary hero Stevenson had died.  
   
  Schwob was regarded as a symbolist writer and a ‘precursor of Surrealism’.  He wrote over a hundred short stories, journalistic articles, essays, biographies, literary reviews and analysis, translations and plays.  
   
  Marcel Schwob died on 26th February 1905 of Pneumonia.  He was 37.

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  The Death Room - Former soldier...

  Edgar Wallace

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  Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born on the 1st April 1875 in Greenwich, London.  Leaving school at 12 because of truancy, by the age of fifteen he had experience; selling newspapers, as a worker in a rubber factory, as a shoe shop assistant, as a milk delivery boy and as a ship’s cook.  
   
  By 1894 he was engaged but broke it off to join the Infantry being posted to South Africa. He also changed his name to Edgar Wallace which he took from Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur.  
   
  In Cape Town in 1898 he met Rudyard Kipling and was inspired to begin writing. His first collection of ballads, The Mission that Failed! was enough of a success that in 1899 he paid his way out of the armed forces in order to turn to writing full time.  
   
  By 1904 he had completed his first thriller, The Four Just Men. Since nobody would publish it he resorted to setting up his own publishing company which he called Tallis Press. 
    
  In 1911 his Congolese stories were published in a collection called Sanders of the River, which became a bestseller. He also started his own racing papers, Bibury’s and R. E. Walton’s Weekly, eventually buying his own racehorses and losing thousands gambling.  A life of exceptionally high income was also mirrored with exceptionally large spending and debts.  
   
  Wallace now began to take his career as a fiction writer more seriously, signing with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921. He was marketed as the ‘King of Thrillers’ and they gave him the trademark image of a trilby, a cigarette holder and a yellow Rolls Royce. He was truly prolific, capable not only of producing a 70,000 word novel in three days but of doing three novels in a row in such a manner. It was estimated that by 1928 one in four books being read was written by Wallace, for alongside his famous thrillers he wrote variously in other genres, including science fiction, non-fiction accounts of WWI which amounted to ten volumes and screen plays. Eventually he would reach the remarkable total of 170 novels, 18 stage plays and 957 short stories. 
   
  Wallace became chairman of the Press Club which to this day holds an annual Edgar Wallace Award, rewarding ‘excellence in writing’.  
   
  Diagnosed with diabetes his health deteriorated and he soon entered a coma and died of his condition and double pneumonia on the 7th of February 1932 in North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills. He was buried near his home in England at Chalklands, Bourne End, in Buckinghamshire.

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  The Axeman of New Orleans - A...

  Ariel Sanders

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  🎷 In the sultry shadows of 1918 New Orleans, death has a rhythm all its own. 
  When a string of brutal, axe-wielding murders shatters the city’s uneasy peace, Detective Louis Beaulieu is thrust into a chilling hunt for a phantom whose only calling cards are shattered skulls and bloodstained jazz notes. As fear grips the streets, the elusive Axeman sends a nightmarish ultimatum to the public: play jazz through the night—or face the blade. 
  With each new body, the line between madness and music blurs. Beneath the surface of this city steeped in secrets, something darker is composing a symphony of terror. Beaulieu must navigate a twisted maze of smoke-filled clubs, cryptic messages, and haunted minds—where every clue is a note in a macabre composition, and silence could be the prelude to death. 
  As the killer’s melody crescendos, Beaulieu faces a truth more sinister than he ever imagined—one that threatens to consume him and the soul of New Orleans itself. 
  The Axeman of New Orleans is a heart-pounding historical thriller where jazz and horror intertwine. Prepare to leave the lights on—and the music playing. 🔊 
  Some symphonies should never be heard...🎶

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  3 Stories - Set in Switzerland -...

  Arthur Conan Doyle, E F Benson,...

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  There is something about the number 3.    
   
  The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.   
   
  Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois.  It seems good things usually come in threes. 
   
  Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating. 
   
  From their pens to your your ears.

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