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  Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of...

  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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  "The shadows of Cappercullen hold more than just memories; they hold the restless spirits of those we betrayed."
  
  Returning to the rugged landscape of Munster, Le Fanu weaves a tale of the doomed De Lacy family. Ultor De Lacy, a man whose family was ruined by their loyalty to the lost Jacobite cause, lives a shadow of a life in the decaying Tower of Cappercullen. But the physical ruin of his estate is nothing compared to the spiritual rot within. When his daughters encounter a mysterious and beautiful stranger in the woods, they unknowingly reopen a door to a supernatural debt that has remained unpaid for generations. It is a story where political exile meets ghostly visitation, proving that for the De Lacys, the war never truly ended.
  
  History Haunted by Myth: Le Fanu brilliantly utilizes the real-world tension of the 18th-century Jacobite rebellions to ground his ghost story. The "legend" isn't just a campfire tale; it is a manifestation of the trauma of a defeated aristocracy. The ghosts of Cappercullen are symbols of a bygone era that refuses to die or stay silent.
  
  The "Stranger" in the Woods: A recurring theme in Le Fanu's work is the deceptive nature of the supernatural. The figure who haunts the periphery of the De Lacy estate is both alluring and terrifying, representing the "Otherworld" of Irish folklore. The story explores the vulnerability of innocence when faced with an ancient, calculating evil.
  
  Atmospheric Mastery: From the "death-tick" in the walls to the chilling descriptions of the secret chamber hidden within the tower, Le Fanu builds a sense of mounting dread. Ultor De Lacy is a masterclass in the "liminal" ghost story—where the horror is found in the transition between the historical world we know and the spectral world we fear.
  
  Step into the tower of shadows. Purchase "Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen" today.

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

  Washington Irving

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving is a captivating and timeless tale that transports readers to a bygone era of superstition and ghostly folklore.  
  The story follows Ichabod Crane, a bumbling but endearing schoolteacher, as he becomes entranced by the haunting legend of the Headless Horseman, a phantom rider who terrorises the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving's lyrical and evocative prose paints a vivid picture of a world where reality and myth intertwine, where reason gives way to fear and imagination. As Ichabod's obsession with the legend grows, the stage is set for a thrilling and unforgettable encounter with the ghostly apparition, leaving readers breathless and captivated until the very end. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a masterful work of fiction that continues to enchant and enthral readers of all ages. 
  This new audio edition is brought to life for 21st century audiences by narrator Jake Urry.

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  The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the last of the twelve collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Strand Magazine in June 1892.Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as governess; a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120 when Miss Hunter baulks at having to cut her long hair short (her previous position paid £48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisos to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions.She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to Hampshire, where Mr Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated.After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in Winchester. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr. Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: there was a man standing there on the road looking towards the house.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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  Kew Gardens

  Virginia Woolf

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  First published in 1921 as part of her ground-breaking short-story collection Monday or Tuesday, Kew Gardens follows the thoughts of a set of characters walking past a flower bed in the royal botanic garden on a hot July day.
  Interweaving the thoughts of the characters with depictions of the natural world surrounding them, the narrative flows from mind to mind, from the tranquil flower bed to the bustling city outside.
  Written in Woolf's trademark style, brimming with keen observation and rich language, Kew Gardens is both a paean to the natural world and an empathetic exploration of human experience.
  'The light fell either upon the smooth, grey back of a pebble or the shell of a snail with its brown, circular veins, or, falling into a raindrop, it expanded with such intensity of red, blue and yellow the thin walls of water that one expected them to burst and disappear… Then the breeze stirred rather more briskly overhead and the colour was flashed into the air above, into the eyes of the men and women who walk in Kew Gardens in July.'

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  Home Life Relayed - BBC presents...

  E M Delafield

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  Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture, and more commonly known as E M Delafield, was born in Steyning, Sussex on 9th June 1890.   
   
  Raised in the fading years of the Victorian era with its Empire and strict moral codes Delafield, not yet married at twenty-one, joined a French religious order, in Belgium, but soon decided that this was a totally wrong choice for her.   
   
  Her next challenge was her work during the horror of the First World War.  Delafield decided to take up a position as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment in Exeter.  It was whilst here that she managed to write her first novel, ‘Zella Sees Herself’.   
   
  With the end of the war new opportunities were sought and she now took up a position for the South-West Region of the Ministry of National Service in Bristol.  With it came enough time to write two more novels: ‘The War Workers’ (1918) and ‘The Pelicans’ (1918).   
   
  On 17th July 1919, she married Colonel Arthur Paul Dashwood, OBE, an engineer responsible for building the massive docks at Hong Kong Harbour.  The marriage produced two children; Lionel and Rosamund.  That same year her fourth novel, ‘Consequences’, was published.   
   
  The couple spent their early years in Malaya but returned to England to live in Croyle, an old house in Kentisbeare, Devon.  Delafield continued to collect responsibilities and organise whatever she could.  At the initial meeting of the Kentisbeare Women's Institute, Delafield was unanimously elected president, and also became a Justice of the Peace, raised the children and, of course, continued to write her best-selling novels.   
   
  Her greatest work is undoubtedly the largely autobiographical ‘Diary of a Provincial Lady’, which is a simply structured journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman, living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s.  It spawned several best-selling sequels.  Her works also includes stage and radio plays, film scripts and short stories.  
   
  After the death of her son in 1940, her health began to markedly decline.    
   
  E M Delafield died on 2nd December 1943 after collapsing whilst giving a lecture in Oxford.  She was 53.

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  The Eternal Husband

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  "The Eternal Husband" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a psychological novella that explores the complexities of human relationships, guilt, and the recurring patterns of betrayal. The story centers around the encounter between two men, Alexei Ivanovich Velchaninov and Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky, whose lives become intertwined due to their shared connection with the same woman. Throughout the novella, Dostoyevsky weaves a complex tapestry of human emotions, exploring themes of guilt, betrayal, and the cyclical nature of relationships. "The Eternal Husband" delves into the depths of human psyche, offering a profound examination of human nature and the inner turmoil that accompanies the complexities of love and moral responsibility. Read in English, unabridged.

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