Other books that might interest you

• 

  Walk the Blue Fields - Stories

  Claire Keegan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Claire Keegan's brilliant debut collection, Antarctica, was named a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year and earned her resounding accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. She continues her outstanding work with this new collection of quietly wrenching stories of despair and desire in modern-day Ireland. 
   
   
    
  In "The Long and Painful Death," a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Böll's old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder whose ulterior motives emerge as the night progresses. In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage—and battles his memories of a love affair that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life. And in "Dark Horses," a man seeks solace at the bottom of a bottle as he mourns both his empty life and his lost love. 
   
   
    
  A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals struggling toward their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from "that rarest of writers—someone I will always want to read," and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart (Irish Times).

  Show book

• 

  Top 10 Short Stories The - H G...

  HG Wells

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In the canon of literature one British author is instantly recognizable across several genres for his many classics.   In this volume H G Wells once more demonstrates, across a range of short stories, that his fabled talents remain undimmed. 
   
   
   
   
  A Spring Harvest 
   
  Geoffrey Bache Smith was born in Staffordshire on 18th October 1894.  
   
  He attended King Edward’s School, Birmingham at the same time as J.R.R. Tolkien, where they founded the literary “Tea Cup and Barovian Society”. 
    
  Geoffrey was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 19th (Service) Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, the ‘3rd Salford Pals’, and took part in the Battle of the Somme.  
   
  He was wounded by shrapnel on 29th November 1916 and died from his wounds on 3rd December 1916. 
   
  He was buried in Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, France.  
   
  1 - The Top 10 - H G Wells - An Introduction 
  2 - The Magic Shop by H G Wells 
  3 - The Man Who Could Work Miracles by H G Wells 
  4 - The Flowering of the Strange Orchid by H G Wells 
  5 - The Stolen Bacillus by H G Wells 
  6 - The Cone by H G Wells 
  7 - Aepyornis Island by H G Wells 
  8 - The Sea Raiders by H G Wells 
  9 - The Crystal Egg by H G Wells 
  10 - The Valley of Spiders by H G Wells 
  11 - A Dream of Armageddon - Part 1 by H G Wells 
  12 - A Dream of Armageddon - Part 2 by H G Wells

  Show book

• 

  Places Like These

  Lauren Carter

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Finalist for the 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards
  A widow visits a spiritualist community to attempt to contact her late husband. A grieving teenager confronts the unfairness of his small-town world and the oncoming ecological disaster. A sexual assault survivor navigates her boyfriend's tricky family and her own confusing desires. A mother examines unresolved guilt while seeking her missing daughter in a city slum. A lover exploits his girlfriend's secrets for his own purposes. Whether in Ecuador or San Francisco, rural Ontario or northern Manitoba, the landscape in each of Carter's poignant short stories reflects each character's journey.
  Psychologically complex and astute, Places Like These plumbs the vast range of human reactions to those things which make us human—love, grief, friendship, betrayal, and the intertwined yet contrasting longing for connection and independence.

  Show book

• 

  Bellerophon To Anteia - From...

  Mary Butts

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Mary Frances Butts was born on 13th December 1890 in Poole, Dorset. 
  Her early years were spent at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour.  Sadly in 1905 her father died, and she was sent for boarding at St Leonard's school for girls in St Andrews. 
  Her mother remarried and, from 1909, Mary studied at Westfield College in London, and here, first became aware of her bisexual feelings.  She was sent down for organising a trip to Epsom races and only completed her degree in 1914 when she graduated from the London School of Economics.  By then Mary had become an admirer of the occultist Aleister Crowley and she was given a co-authorship credit on his ‘Magick (Book 4)’. 
  In 1916, she began the diary which would now detail her future life and be a constant reference point for her observations and her absorbing experiences. 
  During World War I, she was doing social work for the London County Council in Hackney Wick, and involved in a lesbian relationship.  Life changed after meeting the modernist poet, John Rodker and they married in 1918. 
  In 1921 she spent 3 months at Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema in Sicily; she found the practices dreadful and also acquired a drug habit.  Mary now spent time writing in Dorset, including her celebrated book of short stories ‘Speed the Plough’ which saw fully develop her unique Modernist prose style. 
  Europe now beckoned and several years were spent in Paris befriending many artists and writing further extraordinary stories.   
  She was continually sought after by literary magazines and also published several short story collections as books. Although a Modernist writer she worked in other genres but is essentially only known for her short stories.  Mary was deeply committed to nature conservation and wrote several pamphlets attacking the growing pollution of the countryside. 
  In 1927, she divorced and the following year her novel ‘Armed with Madness’ was published.  A further marriage followed in 1930 and time was spent attempting to settle in London and Newcastle before setting up home on the western tip of Cornwall.  By 1934 the marriage had failed. 
  Mary Butts died on 5th March 1937, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. She was 46.

  Show book

• 

  A Collection of Short Stories

  Various Authors

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An entertaining selection of short stories including 'A Christmas Tree' by  Charles Dickens and 'After the race' by James Joyce.

  Show book

• 

  The Oval Portrait

  Edgar Allan Poe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Title: The Oval Portrait 
  Author: Edgar Allan Poe 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1842 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 5 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe is a haunting work of gothic fiction that explores the intersection of art, obsession, and mortality. First published in 1842 in Godey’s Lady’s Book, the story follows a weary traveler who discovers a mysterious, exquisitely detailed portrait of a young woman in a dark, abandoned chateau. 
  As he studies the painting, he learns the tragic story behind it: the artist’s obsessive devotion to capturing his wife’s likeness ultimately leads to her death. Poe’s tale is a chilling meditation on the cost of artistic obsession, the fragility of life, and the tension between beauty and reality. 
  This recording, narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, brings the story’s eerie atmosphere and subtle psychological horror to life. While the text is in the public domain, this performance is an original work and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Listeners should expect a brief but unsettling narrative that exemplifies Poe’s mastery of suspense, gothic imagery, and psychological depth.

  Show book