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  Dickon the Devil - From their...

  Sheridan Le Fanu

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  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was born on 28th August 1814 in Dublin into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots.   
  For a time he and his siblings were tutored but Le Fanu would often immerse himself in the books of his father’s library. 
  In 1833 Le Fanu began his Law studies at Trinity College, Dublin and graduated in 1839. Although called to the bar he instead began a career in journalism.   
  He was also writing. His first fiction story ‘The Ghost and the Bonesetter’ was published in 1838.  In 1843 came the novella ‘Spalatro: From the Notes of Fra Giacomo’, a hero with a particular necrophiliac passion for an undead blood-drinking beauty, a forerunner to his later female vampire ‘Carmilla’.  
  In 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett with whom he had 4 children. The following year his first novel ‘The C'ock and Anchor’ was published. Works now flowed from his pen and with a rapid increase in family finances they moved, in 1851, to Merrion Square, Dublin, where he remained until his death.  
  In 1858 Susanna died and Le Fanu became reclusive. It was during this period that he produced some of his best work.  Working only by candlelight he wrote through the night, burnishing his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism with many classics including; ‘Green Tea’, ‘Mr Justice Harbottle’, and ‘In a Glass Darkly’.  
  Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58.

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  August Heat - From their pens to...

  W F Harvey

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  William Fryer Harvey AM was born on 14th April 1885 into a wealthy Quaker family in Leeds, West Yorkshire. 
  He was educated at the Quaker Bootham School in Yorkshire and Leighton Park School in Reading before university at Balliol College, Oxford.  
  His health was fragile and he poured his energies into writing short stories and in 1910 published his first collection ‘Midnight House’. 
  In the Great War he was with the Friends' Ambulance Unit and then served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy.  There he received the Albert Medal for Lifesaving but lung damage received at that time troubled him for the rest of his life. 
  He continued to write short stories, and even a memoir, but by 1925 ill health had forced his retirement to any outside work.  Three years later he published his second collection which contained his macabre classic ‘The Beast with Five fingers’, only one more collection would come from his pen in his lifetime. 
  For many years of his life he now lived in Switzerland with his wife but a yearning to be home saw them come back to England in 1935. 
  W F Harvey died in Letchworth on the 4th June 1937. He was 52.

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  Sherlock Holmes: The Five Orange...

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Five Orange Pips, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fifth of the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1891. 
  John Openshaw tells Holmes about two strange deaths in his family. In 1883, his uncle died two months after receiving a letter from India, inscribed "KKK", with five orange pips enclosed. In 1885, Openshaw's father received a similar letter and died three days afterward. Openshaw recently received a similar letter and asks for advice. 
  Holmes tells Openshaw to do as the letter asks and leave a diary page, which Holmes deduces is connected to the Ku Klux Klan, on the garden sundial. Openshaw is killed before he can do so, but Holmes discovers the killers have been travelling on a sailing ship and sends a letter with five orange pips. The ship is lost at sea. 
  Public Domain (P)2016 Listen & Live Audio

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  Candide

  Voltaire

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  "Candide, or Optimism" is a satirical novella written by the French philosopher Voltaire, first published in 1759. It follows the adventures of the young Candide, who is raised in a utopian world and taught that “all is for the best.” The narrative takes him through a series of misfortunes, exposing him to the harsh realities of the world, ultimately leading him to question his optimistic beliefs. Voltaire uses Candide’s journey to satirize religion, governments, the military, and the philosophy of optimism, particularly as espoused by Leibniz. "Candide" is considered one of the greatest achievements of Western literature

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  The Poetry

  Jack London

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  Jack London was an outstanding American writer, publicist and public figure, the author of numerous adventure stories and tales. 
  Jack London is famous for his short stories and novels, but he also enthusiastically studied poetry and even made an attempt to establish a reputation for himself as a poet.

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  Rainbow Valley

  L. M. Montgomery

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  "“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.”In the seventh book of the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne and Gilbert Blythe have been happily married for over a decade and have six children. The children take center stage in this story, as they befriend the four children of a new minister in tow, John Meredith. After John’s wife died, he has buried himself into theological studies, and lets his children run free. And though the children are generally kind and loyal, the townsfolk only really notice them on the occasions where they’re getting into trouble.The Blythe children focus helping the Meredith children parent themselves while their father still mourns. The children spend a lot of time together in Rainbow Valley, forming a “Good-Conduct Club” and attempting to self-discipline for any wrongdoings. Eventually, John Meredith begins to see that his children need actual parents, though, and decides it is time to find love again. In typical Anne of Green Gables fashion, this book contrasts the idyllic environment of the town of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley with the difficulties of the townspeople’s lives. But through all of the personal turmoil and difficulties, the sunny world of Prince Edward Island and its warm-hearted inhabitants bring hope to each person with time. "

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