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  William - an Englishman

  Cicely Hamilton

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  A satirical view of the suffragette movement and an unblinking yet compassionate story that chronicles the impact of the First World War on an ordinary young couple, William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton won the first Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse prize in 1919.Written in a hospital tent to the sound of gunfire and shells falling, Cicely Hamilton drew on her experiences working in France during WW1 to tell the story of William Tully and his new bride Griselda, who are wrenched away from their all-consuming interests – socialism and votes for women – and plunged into the almost dream-like horror of war. As brutal tragedy strikes, their attitude to both pacifism and patriotism is altered and their lives are changed forever.William - An Englishman is part of the Persephone Audiobook Collection, a series of forgotten classics that includes neglected fiction and non-fiction by women writers. First published in 1919, this edition includes a preface by writer and MD of Persephone Books, Nicola Beauman.

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  Mary Postgate - From their pens...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.   
  As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5.  The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.  
  At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing.  It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.  
  In 1886, his ‘Departmental Ditties’, collection of verse appeared in print followed by 39 short stories for his newspaper over only 8 months.  These were then published as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills’, shortly after his 22nd birthday.  
  He continued his prolific pace of writing before being dismissed in a dispute and, taking his pay-off and the profits from the sale of some publishing rights, decided to return to London, travelling via Rangoon, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, all the while writing articles, and arriving at Liverpool in October 1889. 
  Over the next two years he saw further works published as books and in magazines, as well as a nervous breakdown for which he was prescribed a sea voyage, to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.  
  Happier times came with marriage to Caroline Starr Balestier in January 1892.  The honeymoon began in Vermont and ended in Yokahama where they heard their bank had failed.  They returned to Vermont and settled.  Caroline was now pregnant and he was planning the ‘Jungle Books’.  
  A failed arbitration between the US and England resulted in an argument between Caroline’s brother and Kipling, and then his arrest.  At the hearing he was mortified by the exposure of his private life and after settling the matter they returned to England and life in Torquay.  ‘Kim’ was published in 1902, and ‘Just So Stories for Little Children’, a year later.  
  In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”.   
  When the Great War erupted, he scorned those who refused conscription.  His son enlisted and was killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at 18, an exploding shell had ripped his face apart.  This death inspired Kipling’s writing thereafter, but the tragedy broke his life and by 1930 his prolific pen had almost ceased. 
  Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 from a perforated duodenal ulcer.  He was 70.  His ashes are buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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  The Boscombe Valley Mystery

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Boscombe Valley Mystery, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fourth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891.Lestrade summons Holmes to a community in Herefordshire, where a local landowner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased's estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail.Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson take a train to Boscombe Valley, in Herefordshire. En route, Holmes reads the news and briefs Watson on their new case.John Turner, a widower and a major landowner who has a daughter named Alice, lives there with a fellow expatriate from Australia, Charles McCarthy, a widower who has a son named James. Charles has been found dead near Boscombe Pool; it was reported that he was there to meet someone. Two witnesses testify that they saw Charles walking into the woods followed by James, who was carrying a gun. Patience Moran, daughter of a lodgekeeper, says that she saw Charles and James arguing and that, when James raised his hand as if to hit his father, she ran to her mother, and while she was telling her mother what she saw James rushed to their house seeking help. The Morans followed James back to the Pool, where they found his father dead. James was arrested and charged with murder. Alice Turner believes that James is innocent and has contacted Lestrade, a Scotland Yard detective who in turn has asked Holmes' help.Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: "A Study in Scarlet", "Silver Blaze", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The Yellow Face", "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Red-Headed League", A Case of Identity", "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Five Orange Pips", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Blue Carbuncle", "The Speckled Band", "The Engineer's Thumb", "The Noble Bachelor", "The Beryl Coronet", "The Copper Beeches" and many more.

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  The Adventures of Huckleberry...

  Mark Twain

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  What happens when a boy must choose between obeying society and following his own conscience? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic audiobook that begins not with comfort, but with a moral crossroads. Set along the Mississippi River, this Huckleberry Finn audiobook draws listeners into a journey of escape, loyalty, and inner conflict—where freedom is uncertain and every decision carries weight. 
  Through Huck’s evolving perspective, listeners experience a powerful exploration of right and wrong, independence, and human dignity. This audiobook reveals how moral understanding is formed not through rules, but through lived experience. As a cornerstone of classic American literature, it offers enduring insight into friendship, social conditioning, and personal responsibility. Listeners gain a deeper appreciation for coming-of-age narratives, classic fiction audiobooks, and stories that challenge inherited beliefs while remaining deeply human. 
  Engage with a richly narrated journey of moral awakening and self-discovery 
  Understand timeless themes of freedom, conscience, and social pressure 
  Experience authentic dialogue and regional storytelling through audio 
  Reflect on ethical choices that remain relevant in the modern world 
  Revisit a literary classic in a more immersive, emotionally resonant format 
  Authored by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is widely considered one of the most influential works in American literature. Its realism, moral complexity, and narrative voice reshaped the modern novel. Decades later, its questions remain unanswered and its lessons undiminished. As an audiobook, Twain’s language gains renewed immediacy, allowing listeners to absorb its depth as an oral experience rather than a distant text. 
  This audiobook invites you to listen without judgment and think without certainty

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  The Highwayman - Classic Tales...

  Alfred Noyes

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  A Highwayman ravages the countryside, robbing the unsuspecting traveler. He promises to come at midnight for Bess, the landlord’s daughter. But when the redcoats come, and lay a trap for the Highwayman at the inn, Bess warns her lover in a method and manner never to be forgotten.

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  The Group - A Novel

  Mary McCarthy

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  This smash bestseller about privileged Vassar classmates shocked America in the sixties and remains "juicy . . . witty . . . brilliant" (Cosmopolitan).
  
   
  
  
  At Vassar, they were known as "the group"—eight young women of privilege, the closest of friends, an eclectic mix of vibrant personalities. A week after graduation in 1933, they all gather for the wedding of Kay Strong, one of their own, before going their separate ways in the world. In the years that follow, they will each know accomplishment and loss in equal measure, pursuing careers and marriage, experiencing the joys and traumas of sexual awakening and motherhood, all while suffering through betrayals, infidelities, and sometimes madness. Some of them will drift apart. Some will play important roles in the personal dramas of others. But it is tragedy that will ultimately unite the group once again.
  
  
  A novel that stunned the world when it was first published in 1963, Mary McCarthy's The Group found acclaim, controversy, and a place atop the New York Times bestseller list for nearly two years for its frank and controversial exploration of women's issues, social concerns, and sexuality. A blistering satire of the mores of an emergent generation of women, The Group is McCarthy's enduring masterpiece, still as relevant, powerful, and wonderfully entertaining fifty years on.
  
  
  This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary McCarthy including rare images from the author's estate.

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