Other books that might interest you

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  The Stranger

  Katherine Mansfield

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  "The Stranger" is a 1921 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the London Mercury in January 1921, and later reprinted in The Garden Party and Other Stories.
  In Auckland, Mr. Hammond is waiting for his wife, back from Europe. After talking to some other people waiting at the harbour, she lands in but takes her time, leading him to wonder if she was sick during the voyage - she was not.

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  The Passionate Pilgrim

  William Shakespeare

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  The Passionate Pilgrim was an anthology of twenty poems attributed to William Shakespeare but which present-day scholars think just five of these poems were written by the Bard. Here, the most popular four poems, The Passionate Pilgrim, Sonnets To Sundry Notes of Music, A Lover's Complaint, and The Pheonix and The Turtle are read by Edith Evans, Donald Wolfit, Joan Hart and William Squire.

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  The Book of Dragons

  Edith Nesbit

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  "The Book of Dragons" by Edith Nesbit is a delightful collection of whimsical tales where magic and mischief collide. From mischievous dragonets causing chaos to a magic carpet with a mind of its own, Nesbit weaves enchanting stories that captivate the imagination. Each tale explores the unexpected consequences of magical encounters, offering a blend of humor, fantasy, and moral lessons in this timeless collection.

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  Babylon Revisited - Like his...

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24th September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota into an upper-middle class family. Whilst his mother was pregnant with him, his two young sisters tragically died.  Fitzgerald once said this was when his destiny as a writer was ordained. 
   
  His intelligence and talent was recognised from an early age, with his first story, about a detective being published in the school magazine when he was just 13.   
   
  In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton but his devotion to his own literary pursuits resulted in him leaving and, rather bizarrely, joining the Army.  In 1918, stationed at Fort Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama he met and became infatuated and then inseparable from Zelda Sayre.  Initially though she refused to marry him but with the success of ‘This Side of Paradise’, the fame and the flow of money enabled them both to begin a gilded life.  For them this was The Jazz Age.  For Fitzgerald he was already an alcoholic. 
   
  He continued to write with great mastery and the titles of his novels and many of his 164 short stories are household names.  The Great Gatsby, often cited as The Great American Novel was published to mixed reviews.  As America moved from the Great Depression to the slaughter of the Second World War his works and himself were seen as far too entwined with the decadent twenties. The world had moved on and he hadn’t.   
   
  Further tragedy was never far from his life. Zelda after years of erratic and now intolerable behaviour was committed to an institution in 1936.  His own sales began to decline and he became a hack for hire in Hollywood, dependent on increasing amounts of booze and the weekly pay check.  His drunken state had often resulted in arrest or hospitalisation, further imperiling his talents.   Despite his contribution to many MGM films he received only one credit. 
   
  The end came all too soon for one of America’s greatest ever writers.  On 21st December 1940, at only 44 years of age in Hollywood, F Scott Fitzgerald succumbed to a heart attack. 
   
  In this bittersweet story of a man who enjoyed the boom years of la dolce vita and now, in more straitened times, is unable to get what he really wants; the custody of his daughter.  He returns to Paris to meet the ghosts of those good times and to make amends for his past.

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  A Novel in a Nutshell - From...

  George Moore

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  The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is George Moore.

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  Wuthering Heights - A Tale of...

  Emily Brontë

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  Some souls are not meant to be saved; they are meant to burn together. 
  Step onto the desolate, wind-battered Yorkshire moors, where a tempestuous love story bridges the gap between the living and the dead. Wuthering Heights is not a gentle romance—it is a brutal, passionate, and unforgettable descent into the depths of human obsession. 
  When the mysterious, dark-eyed foundling Heathcliff is brought to the Earnshaw estate, he forms an unbreakable, almost unholy bond with the wild and defiant Catherine. But societal expectations and bitter jealousies tear them apart, igniting a merciless campaign of revenge that will span generations and poison everyone it touches. 
  Emily Brontë’s solitary masterpiece redefined the gothic genre, crafting a landscape as feral and unforgiving as the characters who inhabit it. Surrender to the chilling atmosphere, the howling winds, and a love that refuses to die, even beyond the grave.

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