Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Stolen Bachilus - From their...

  HG Wells

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  Herbert George Wells was born on September 21st, 1866 at Atlas House, 46 High Street, Bromley, Kent. He was the youngest of four siblings and his family affectionately knew him as ‘Bertie’.  
  The first few years of his childhood were spent fairly quietly, and Wells didn’t display much literary interest until, in 1874, he accidentally broke his leg and was left to recover in bed, largely entertained by the library books his father regularly brought him. Through these Wells found he could escape the boredom and misery of his bed and convalescence by exploring the new worlds he encountered in these books.  
  From these humble beginnings began a career that was, after several delays, to be seen as one of the most brilliant of modern English writers.    
  Able to write comfortably in a number of genres he was especially applauded for his science fiction works such as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds but his forays into the social conditions of the times, with classics such as Kipps, were almost as commercially successful.  His short stories are miniature masterpieces many of which bring new and incredible ideas of science fiction to the edge of present day science fact.  Wells also received four nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature 
  Despite a strong and lasting second marriage his affairs with other women also brought the complications of fathering other children.  His writings and work against fascism, as well as the promotion of socialism, brought him into increasing doubts with and opposition to religion.  His writings on what the world could be in works, such as A Modern Utopia, are thought provoking as well as being plausible, especially when viewed from the distressing times they were written in. 
  His diabetic condition pushed him to create what is now the largest Diabetes charity in the United Kingdom.  Wells even found the time to run twice for Parliament. 
  It was a long, distinguished and powerfully successful career by the time he died, aged 79, on August 13th, 1946.

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  After Twenty years - From their...

  O Henry

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  William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. 
  He first attended at a school run by his aunt before enrolling at the Lindsey Street High School and then worked at his uncle’s drugstore and gained a pharmacists’ license in 1881.  
  A persistent cough took him to Texas in the hope that a change of climate would help his symptoms. He took on various types of work, initially from ranch hand and cook and then as varied as pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began to write, though for now, purely as a hobby. 
  He was a member of several singing and dramatic groups when he met 17 year old Athol Estes, daughter of a wealthy Austin family. Despite her mother’s objection owing to Athol’s tuberculosis, they began courting and in July 1887, they eloped and soon married. 
  Athol, impressed by his writing, encouraged him to get them published. A job as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office paid a healthy $100 dollars per month and life was good. 
  But then life turned cruel. His son died a few hours after birth although a daughter, Margaret, came the following year.  His job had to be vacated but another was found at the First National Bank of Austin. The bank operated informally and Porter was careless in keeping the books. He lost that job but began writing for the humourous weekly The Rolling Stone and the Houston Post. Some time later the federal Bank auditors went through his former accounts and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. 
  Porter fled the day before his trial to Honduras. Holed up for several months he began to write.  Athol had become too ill to travel to meet him and learning that her health was deteriorating he surrendered to the court in February 1897.  Bail was obtained so that he could stay with Athol during her final days.  
  Porter was sentenced to five years at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. His pharmacy qualifications got him the job of night druggist.  His sentence also gave him time to write and publish fourteen short stories. In December 1899 in McClure’s Magazine he published a short story as O Henry.  
  He was released two years early in July 1901, and reunited with Margaret, now 11, in Pittsburgh.  He now began his most prolific period of writing; a short story per week for the New York World, while also publishing works in other magazines.  Eventually over 600 of his short stories were published. 
  Porter was a heavy drinker and in 1908 his health, which had deteriorated for several years, took a dramatic turn for the worse, as did his writing. 
  O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by diabetes and an enlarged heart on 5th June 1910.<

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  Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

  M. R. James

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. “Ghost Stories of an Antiquary” is a collection of mysterious and atmospheric tales by renowned writer M.R. James. Transporting us into the realm of supernatural fiction, James weaves intriguing narratives that evoke feelings of unease and mystery. 📖👻 
   
  This collection contains the following short stories: 
  - Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book 
  - Lost Hearts 
  - The Mezzotint 
  - The Ash-tree 
  - Number 13  
  - Count Magnus 
  - "Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad" 
  - The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

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  Saturn Rising

  Andrew Wareham

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  Bloody Nick returns from the Mediterranean tired—he has done too much, seen too much, and needs rest at home. His ship, HBMS Hawke, needs time in the yard. A year of half-pay leaves Nick rested and anxious to get back to sea. He is close to the top of the Captain's List and automatic promotion to Rear Admiral must be due in two to four years—the actual date varying at the Admiralty's convenience. Captains sitting at home without a command are more likely to be yellowed, made without squadron, and never employed again.Nick has his baronetcy—which he values greatly—but knows a successful command as an admiral may turn that into an Irish peerage. He cannot realistically hope for more than that, a title without a seat in the House of Lords, but would dearly love to become Lord Turnhouse. He begs the First Lord for a ship and is given Saturn, an unusual razee, to take out to the Mediterranean . . . provided he can man her.His first task in the Mediterranean is to attempt to tidy up a problem in the Aegean where the French are taking bases on some of the islands, the Ottomans are losing control of others to rebel Turks and unruly Greeks, and the British are enemies to some, friends to others, and allies to none. As Commodore with a small squadron, Nick has a free hand to create peace—quite possibly the peace of the grave.

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  Canon Alberic's Scrap Book -...

  M R James

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  Montague Rhodes James is cited as perhaps the greatest English writer of ghost stories, an opinion few would disagree with. 
  James was born on 1st August 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, where his father was Curate but at age 3 the family went to live at Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia.  
  From early childhood he had a passion for mediaeval books and antiques. He was educated initially as a boarder at Temple Grove School in East Sheen, west London, before gaining a scholarship to Eton and thence Cambridge where he gained a double first, becoming a distinguished linguist and mediaevalist.  
  Before the Great War vacations were usually spent touring Europe absorbing cultures and references for his later writing. 
  A man of enormous knowledge it was said he timed his breakfast egg whilst he completed the Times crossword.  
  Many of his elegant yet terrifying tales were created by discarding the prevailing gothic cliches and placing his characters and narrative in a realistic setting.  Thereby the stories gained atmosphere and menace on a grand scale and he was famed as the originator of the antiquarian ghost story. 
  Although story-telling and writing these 30 or so tales was a hobby, when published their effect transformed the genre and still chill the bones in our more modern times. 
  James was also a medievalist scholar and translator whose work remains highly respected. He was also Provost of Eton College between 1918 and 1936. 
  M R James died on 12th June 1936 at Eton in Buckinghamshire.  He was 73.

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  Spring at Flora's House

  Freya North

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  On the windswept Isle of Harris in the remote Outer Hebrides of Scotland, three young American students arrive to run a marathon none of the islanders know anything about. At first, it seems the three men are more interested in partying but gradually, their reasons for making this journey, for running this race, come to the fore.  
  JB has an overbearing father to appease. Drew needs to find his feet. Taylor's mother was born here but left when she was a teenager, never to return. Hidden in his backpack are four old pieces of tweed with family secrets woven through the cloth. 
  In the tiny white cottage on the dunes of Luskentyre, their friendship, goals and sense of self are put to the test. 
  It's Spring on the island, a time of renewal and growth, of putting distance between the cold dark days of winter while looking ahead to the warmth and promise of summer yet to come.

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