Other books that might interest you

• 

  Ben Pitcher's Elly - Mann delves...

  Mary E. Mann

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family.  Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres.   
   
  Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories.  
   
  She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics.  
   
  Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays.  Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation.  
   
  Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham.  
   
  She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories. 
   
  Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929.  She was 80.  Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’. 
   
  Life in ‘Ben Pitcher's Elly’ is degrading, awful and unvarnished.  The chances of this young girl having a happy life are remote but her story must be heard.

  Show book

• 

  O Henry - Six of the Best -...

  O Henry

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  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 humorous 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.

  Show book

• 

  Almayers Folly

  Joseph Conrad

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Kaspar Almayer is a Dutch trader whose career has stalled. He finds himself in a riverside village in the jungles of East Borneo with his estranged Malay wife, their beautiful daughter Nina, and a lavish but unfinished house the village has dubbed "Almayer's Folly." Kaspar dreams of becoming rich enough to free himself from the backwater village and take Nina to Europe. Rumors of gold deposits in the depths of the jungle delude him into thinking he's close to achieving that dream, and with the arrival of a rajah's son who's willing to join Kaspar in his get-rich-quick scheme, the plot is kicked into motion. Almayer's Folly is notable for being Joseph Conrad's first novel, published in 1895 after six years of casual writing and just one year after he ended his maritime career. For this book, Józef Konrad Korzeniowski adopted the pen name by which he would later be known as a master of the English language. The book is based on Conrad's experience as a seaman in the British merchant navy and his travels to Indonesia. Both the book's titular character and the riverside village have their counterparts in real-life. While critics argue that Almayer's Folly isn't as good as Conrad's more famous works, the book introduces themes which he often returns to in his writing career, including colonialism, the clash of East and West, and the dominant forces of Nature. Joseph Conrad (died 1924) was a major literary figure of the early 20th century. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. As a work of classic literary fiction, Almayers Folly exemplifies the narrative craft and social insight that defined great storytelling of its era. Literary fiction of this period was characterized by careful attention to character psychology, social milieu, and the moral questions that animated public discourse.

  Show book

• 

  The First Men in the Moon

  H. G. Wells

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In one of the earliest works of science fiction, H. G. Wells brings to life the joys of space travel and humanity's boundless curiosity. 
   
  When penniless businessman Mr Bedford moves to Kent in the hopes of writing a play, he meets mad scientist Mr Cavor who is developing an anti-gravity metal. One man seeking his fortune and the other scientific discovery, this unlikely pair journey to the moon using Mr Cavor's new invention. But what creatures lurk beneath its cratered surface? 
   
  The First Men in the Moon is a swashbuckling adventure about the discovery of extra-terrestrial life. However, undercutting this action is a poignant exploration of ethics in the face of scientific progress. Wells is a master science fiction writer and his works have influenced the genre for more than a century.

  Show book

• 

  An Account of Some Strange...

  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "It was the face of a man who had died in a paroxysm of terror."
  
  Two young medical students, seeking a quiet place to study, rent a massive, dilapidated old house in Dublin's Aungier Street. But the silence they seek is soon shattered by heavy, unseen footsteps, the scratching of a giant rat, and the terrifying apparition of a large man with a crimson velvet waistcoat. They soon discover the house's dark history: it was once the residence of a notorious "hanging judge" who took his own life within its walls. As the atmosphere grows increasingly oppressive, the students realize that the Judge's spirit is not merely wandering—it is actively seeking a new victim.
  
  The Master of Atmospheric Dread: Le Fanu is a pioneer of psychological horror. In this story, he uses the "uncanny"—taking a familiar domestic space and making it feel wrong. The horror isn't just in the ghost itself, but in the growing sense of unease, the shadows that move on their own, and the feeling of being watched by something that "ought not to be there."
  
  The Legacy of the "Hanging Judge": The figure of the Judge represents a common theme in Le Fanu's work: the past refusing to stay buried. The Judge's cruelty in life translates into a predatory supernatural presence in death. The story's climax is a masterclass in suspense, as one of the students finds himself paralyzed by the gaze of the long-dead jurist.
  
  A Classic for Fans of the Macabre: Often cited as one of the greatest ghost stories ever written, this tale influenced a generation of horror writers, including M.R. James. It is a brief but unforgettable journey into the heart of a haunted city.
  
  Open the door to Aungier Street. Purchase this classic of Gothic horror today.

  Show book

• 

  The Man Who Missed the Bus -...

  Stella Benson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Stella Benson was born on the 6th January 1892 in Easthope, Shropshire to parents who were landed gentry. 
  Her early years involved frequent household moves which was difficult for the child as she suffered from ill-health.  Some of her early education was spent at schools in Germany and Switzerland and by 10 she had developed a lifelong habit of keeping a diary. 
  In the following years her parents separated, and she rarely saw her father. When she did, he encouraged to pause her writing until she had further experience and could better make sense of the world.  When he died, she learned he had been an alcoholic. 
  A winter spent in the West Indies provided material for her first novel ‘I Pose’ published the following year in 1915. 
  During the War years she became involved in the women's suffrage movement and dedicated time outside of writing to support the troops and help the poor. 
  In 1918 she decided to travel spending much time in California, where she also tutored at the University of California, and continued to write.  In China she met her future husband and after marrying in London, journeyed with him to his various Custom postings through Nanning, Beihai, and Hong Kong and the Far East. 
  The works continued to flow novels, short stories, travel essays all helped to build a deserved and burgeoning reputation. 
  Although her works are now in the forgotten and neglected department her writing style, characters, and narratives more than capably demonstrate her obvious talents.   
  Stella Benson died of pneumonia on the 7th December 1933, at Hạ Long in the Vietnamese province of Tonkin.  She was 40.

  Show book