Publisher: Alien Ebooks
A fascinating look at the impact of war, not only at the military front, but also on issues of social class and the role of women at the "home front."
The King is Dead, Long Live the King by Mary Coleridge (1861-1907) has the simple directness of a fairy tale, albeit one which is run through with cynical irony.A king on his deathbed is granted one hour after death in which he may return to his kingdom. If during that hour, he finds three people who would wish him alive again, then he can indeed come back to life. The hour is spent learning some hard truths, uncovering false friends and finding surprising support where he least expects it. The ending includes a bitter twist.Show book
Ernest Bramah was born on 20th March 1868. He was an intensely private man and very little about his life was ever released. Bramah dropped out of Manchester Grammar school at sixteen, in almost all his subjects he was close to the bottom of his class, and took a job at a farm. His father then invested substantial sums in setting him up with his own farm but Bramah’s long term interests were elsewhere. In his spare time he would write vignettes on local subjects and send them to The Birmingham News for publication. In a now rather dramatic change of career he obtained the position of secretary to Jerome K Jerome and then to editing one of Jerome’s magazines. Thereafter Bramah edited journals for a publishing firm that only ceased with its bankruptcy. He obtained success in his own right with the creation of the storyteller Kai Lung with humourous tales set in China, usually laced with fantasy elements. There seems to have been a certain vogue for stories with an oriental element at this time which Bramah was happy to take advantage of. His career blossomed across many genres; in humour, science-fiction, and supernatural he was ranked with the very best of the day. Even Orwell cited his work as an influence and as a predictor for the rise of Fascism and his own novel, 1984. At a time when the English Channel had yet to be crossed by an aeroplane, Bramah foresaw aerial express trains traveling at 10,000 feet, a nationwide wireless-telegraphy network, fax machines and cypher writing typewriters similar to the German Enigma machine. In 1914, Bramah created the blind detective Max Carrados. Despite the obvious obstacle to his deductive powers he was a literary and commercial success. Ernest Bramah died in Weston-Super-Mare on 27th June 1942 at the age of 74.Show book
Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.A POOR MAN'S TALE OF A PATENT: I am not used to writing for print. What working-man, that never labours less (some Mondays, and Christmas Time and Easter Time excepted) than twelve or fourteen hours a day, is? But I have been asked to put down, plain, what I have got to say; and so I take pen-and-ink, and do it to the best of my power, hoping defects will find excuse.Show book
Professor Aronnax knows all there is to know about creatures that live in the sea. He has read every book on the subject! So when he hears about a mysterious sea monster that is attacking ships, he asks his friend Conseil to help him seek out the terrible beast.Luckily for them, they are joined on their underwater adventure by Ned Land. Ned is a brave sailor who isn't afraid of danger. Which is just as well...Show book
The imperturbable Englishman Phileas Fogg attempts to makes an exciting journey around the World in 80 Days. By his side is the ever resourceful and faithful Passpartout and on his heels is the determined Detective Fix. Jules Verne's classic story brims with colour and adventure as we follow Mr Fogg around the globe through all the travails of Victorian transportation, death defying escapes and ferocious weather. Will he return to London in time to win his wager? Will he return home with more than he anticipated? Simon Hester narrates this classic adventure story for Head Stories Audio. With original music.Show book
In this classic thriller by the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, an English professor is drawn into a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister. When Anthony Lammas, minister of the Kirk and Professor of Logic at St. Andrews University, leaves his hometown for London on business, he little imagines that within two days he will be deeply entangled in a web of mystery and intrigue. But he’s no ordinary professor. His boyhood allegiance to a brotherhood of deep-sea fishermen is about to involve him and handsome ex-pupil, Lord Belses, with a beautiful but dangerous woman. Set in the bleak Yorkshire hamlet of Hungrygrain during the Napoleonic Wars, this is a stirring tale of treason and romance.Show book
