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  Burns & Allen Show Collection...

  Black Eye Entertainment

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  When real life husband and wife George Burns and Gracie Allen worked together in vaudeville, George was the comic and his wife Gracie had the straight lines. They switched their roles upon discovering that Gracie's delivery got a bigger laugh than George's punch lines.The duo became a big hit on vaudeville and in films so when radio beckoned, they delivered. Their first regular radio work was as supporting players on CBS's The Guy Lombardo Show in the 1930s. When Lombardo switched to NBC, George and Gracie took over the show. Early on, the two did not play a married couple on the air. For a long time, they continued a 'flirtation act' with George as Gracie's most persistent suitor.But when the show's ratings began to sag toward the end of the 1930s, George decided it was time their real-life marriage was written into the show. The new format included husband-and-wife characters in a situation comedy setting. George's instincts were spot-on and The Burns & Allen Show went on to new heights, eventually making a successful transition to television. "Taking in a Veteran""Contest: Hollywood's Ideal Married Couple""George's Job in Washington DC""Listening to the Royal Wedding or Playing Poker" Guest, Jean Sablon"Their 15th Wedding Anniversary"Guest, Marie ("The Body") McDonald "Watching Neighbor's Daughter""Movie Contract for a Friend's Daughter""Gracie Dents the Car's Fender or Has She?""George and Gracie offered the lead in Dulcy""Going to the Racetrack"

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  Bernice Bobs Her Hair

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24th September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota into an upper-middle class family. Whilst his mother was pregnant with him, his two young sisters tragically died.  Fitzgerald once said this was when his destiny as a writer was ordained. 
   
  His intelligence and talent was recognised from an early age, with his first story, about a detective being published in the school magazine when he was just 13.   
   
  In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton but his devotion to his own literary pursuits resulted in him leaving and, rather bizarrely, joining the Army.  In 1918, stationed at Fort Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama he met and became infatuated and then inseparable from Zelda Sayre.  Initially though she refused to marry him but with the success of ‘This Side of Paradise’, the fame and the flow of money enabled them both to begin a gilded life.  For them this was The Jazz Age.  For Fitzgerald he was already an alcoholic. 
   
  He continued to write with great mastery and the titles of his novels and many of his 164 short stories are household names.  The Great Gatsby, often cited as The Great American Novel was published to mixed reviews.  As America moved from the Great Depression to the slaughter of the Second World War his works and himself were seen as far too entwined with the decadent twenties. The world had moved on and he hadn’t.   
   
  Further tragedy was never far from his life. Zelda after years of erratic and now intolerable behaviour was committed to an institution in 1936.  His own sales began to decline and he became a hack for hire in Hollywood, dependent on increasing amounts of booze and the weekly pay check.  His drunken state had often resulted in arrest or hospitalisation, further imperiling his talents.   Despite his contribution to many MGM films he received only one credit. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The end came all too soon for one of America’s greatest ever writers.  On 21st December 1940, at only 44 years of age in Hollywood, F Scott Fitzgerald succumbed to a heart attack. 
   
  His classic ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’ carefully pulls apart the relationship between two cousins one hot summer.  Something has to give and with Fitzgerald its an absolute certainty that the brittle lives of young women finally snap in unique ways.

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  Suddenly a Knock on the Door -...

  Etgar Keret

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  Read by an all-star cast and featuring a bonus story special to the audio edition, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door is a one-of-a-kind audio-book. Bringing up a child, lying to the boss, placing an order in a fast-food restaurant: in Etgar Keret’s new collection, daily life is complicated, dangerous, and full of yearning. In his most playful and most mature work yet, the living and the dead, silent children and talking animals, dreams and waking life coexist in an uneasy world. Overflowing with absurdity, humor, sadness, and compassion, the tales in Suddenly, a Knock on the Door establish Etgar Keret—declared a "genius" by The New York Times—as one of the most original writers of his generation. Audio Track listing: "Suddenly, a Knock on the Door", read by Ira Glass; "Lieland", read by Adam Thirlwell; "Cheesus Christ", read by Dave Eggers; "Simyon", read by Nicole Krauss; "Shut", read by George Saunders; "Healthy Start"; read by Ben Foster; "Teamwork", read by Mathieu Amalric; "Pudding", read by Aimee Bender; "Unzipping", read by Miranda July; "The Polite Little Boy", read by Ben Marcus; "Mystique", read by Willem Dafoe; "Creative Writing", read by Stanley Tucci; "Snot", read by John Sayles; "Grab the Cuckoo by the Tail", read by Gary Shteyngart; "Pick a Color", read by Robert Wisdom; "Black and Blue", read by Stella Schnabel; "What Do We Have in Our Pockets?" read by Michael Chabon; "Bad Karma", read by Lorin Stein; "Ari", read by Rick Moody; "Bitch", read by Nathan Englander; "The Story, Victorious", read by Scott Shepherd; "A Good One", read by David Rakoff; "What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" read by Gary Shteyngart; "Not Completely Alone", read by Michael Chernus; "One Step Beyond", read by Shea Wigham; "Big Blue Bus", read by Josh Charles; "Hemorrhoid", read by Michael Buscemi; "September All Year Long", read by Neal Stephenson; "Joseph", read by Mark Duplass; "Mourners Meal", read by Shalom Auslander; "Parallel Universes", read by Todd Hasak-Lowy; "Upgrade", read by Josh Radnor; "Guava", read by Ira Glass; "Surprise Party", read by Scott Shepherd; "What Animal Are You?" read by Jonathan Safran Foer; and "Asthma Attack", read by Etgar Keret.A Macmillan Audio production.

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  Why Herbert Killed His Mother

  Winifred Holtby

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  Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) was an English novelist, short story writer and journalist. 'Why Herbert Killed His Mother' is the story of a perfect baby who wins a beautiful baby contest and becomes a tiny celebrity, bringing fame and fortune to his family. When Herbert grows up, he spends most of his life trying to leave 'Baby Herbert' behind him...but his mother cannot quite relinquish the glory days when she was hailed as the perfect mother.

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  The Loneliness of the...

  Alan Sillitoe

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  Nine classic short stories portraying the isolation, criminality, morality, and rebellion of the working class from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe The titular story follows the internal decisions and external oppressions of a seventeen-year-old inmate in a juvenile detention center who is known only by his surname, Smith. The wardens have given the boy a light workload because he shows talent as a runner. But if he wins the national long-distance running competition as everyone is counting on him to do, Smith will only vindicate the very system and society that has locked him up. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” has long been considered a masterpiece on both the page and the silver screen. Adapted for film by Sillitoe himself in 1962, it became an instant classic of British New Wave cinema.    In “Uncle Ernest,” a middle-aged furniture upholsterer traumatized in World War II, now leads a lonely life. His wife has left him, his brothers have moved away, and the townsfolk treat him as if he were a ghost. When the old man finally finds companionship with two young girls whom he enjoys buying pastries for at a café, the local authorities find his behavior morally suspect. “Mr. Raynor the School Teacher” delves into a different kind of isolation—that of a voyeuristic teacher who fantasizes constantly about the women who work in a draper’s shop across the street. When his students distract him from his lustful daydreams, Mr. Raynor becomes violent.   The six stories that follow in this iconic collection continue to cement Alan Sillitoe’s reputation as one of Britain’s foremost storytellers, and a champion of the condemned, the oppressed, and the overlooked.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author’s estate.  

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  A Garland for Girls

  Louisa May Alcott

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  "These stories were written for my own amusement during a period of enforced seclusion. The flowers which were my solace and pleasure suggested titles for the tales and gave an interest to the work.If my girls find a little beauty or sunshine in these common blossoms, their old friend will not have made her Garland in vain." - L.M. Alcott, September, 1887

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