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  Arch Rascal An - From their pens...

  Knut Hamsun

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  Knud Pedersen was born in Lom in the Gudbrandsdal valley of Norway on the 4th of August, 1859 in what was then the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway.  He was the fourth son of seven children born to poor parents who, when he was three, were invited to an uncle’s farm to work his land. 
  When he was nine he moved away from his family to help another uncle who ran a post office.  Whilst with him he was beaten and starved which manifested in a series of chronic nervous difficulties.  The treatment endured for six years until he managed to escape back to Lom. 
  For some time he now took any job that was available to him, including store clerk, peddler, shoemaker's apprentice, sheriff's assistant, elementary-school teacher and ropemaker's apprentice.  At about the same time, with the wealth of these gained experiences, he began to explore his literary talents. 
  In 1877 he published his first book ‘The Enigmatic Man: A Love Story from Northern Norway’, others soon followed but real success only came in 1890 with ‘Hunger’, an influential work for later novelists with its internal monologue and bizarre logic.  His work is often associated with Pantheism; where nature and mankind are unified in a strong and often mystical bond.   
  His work was so influential that in 1920 he was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature. 
  Shortly after this point his works became fewer and his interests darker.  During World War II he became a fervent admirer of the Nazi’s, even meeting Hitler, even though German armies had overrun Norway.  With the war’s end he was detained on charges of treason.  His old age was apparently the primary reason given for Hamsun receiving only a fine.  Other reasons also sought to excuse his abhorrent behaviour but it was clear that whilst he was loved for his literature he was detested for his politics and morals. 
  His literary canon includes more than 20 novels, a poetry collection, short stories, plays, a travelogue, other works of non-fiction and essays. 
  Knut Hamsun died on the 19th February 1952 in Grimstad. He was 92.

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  Abnormal Statistics

  Max Booth III

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  "Abnormal Statistics takes us on a desolate walking tour of the everyday American nightmare. Come see what’s happening behind the closed doors and shuttered windows of your neighbors, your best friends, the people you trust most. Bleak and bloody horror that’s as raw and immediate as a pile of yellowed teeth, roots and all." 
  —​Trevor Henderson, creator of Siren Head 
  "A tightly written and devastating collection. Abnormal Statistics grabs the reader by the throat with each tale, from the stellar opener 'Indiana Death Song' to the harrowing 'Video Nasties.' Throughout the collection, Booth performs a sort of emotional autopsy that's impossible to look away from, even as we're handed our own viscera to hold. Horror, sorrow, fury and dark humor are woven throughout with an expert hand, and by the end, it hurt more of my feelings than I ever knew I possessed."  
  —​Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Below 
  Suburban decay, familial horror, bleak lullabies. Abnormal Statistics is the debut story collection from Max Booth III.  
  Bad times are waiting for you.  
  Featuring 10 reprints and 3 stories original to this collection (including a brand-new novella called "Indiana Death Song").

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  Betty Brown the St Giles Orange...

  Hannah More

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  Hannah More was born on February 2nd, 1745 at Fishponds in the parish of Stapleton, near Bristol. She was the fourth of five daughters. 
  The City of Bristol, at that time, was a centre for slave-trading and Hannah would, over time, become one of its staunchest critics.  
  She was keen to learn, possessed a sharp intellect and was assiduous in studying.  Hannah first wrote in 1762 with The Search after Happiness (by the mid-1780s some 10,000 copies had been sold). 
  In 1767 Hannah became engaged to William Turner.  After six years, with no wedding in sight, the engagement was broken off.  Turner then bestowed upon her an annual annuity of £200.  This was enough to meet her needs and set her free to pursue a literary career.   
  Her first play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. The famous David Garrick himself produced her next play, Percy, in 1777 as well as writing both the Prologue and Epilogue for it.  It was a great success when performed at Covent Garden in December of that year.  
  Hannah turned to religious writing with Sacred Dramas in 1782; it rapidly ran through nineteen editions. These and the poems Bas-Bleu and Florio (1786) mark her gradual transition to a more serious and considered view of life. 
  Hannah contributed much to the newly-founded Abolition Society including, in February 1788, her publication of Slavery, a Poem recognised as one of the most important of the abolition period.   
  Her work now became more evangelical.  In the 1790s she wrote several Cheap Repository Tracts which covered moral, religious and political topics and were both for sale or distributed to literate poor people.  The most famous is, perhaps, The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, describing a family of incredible frugality and contentment. Two million copies of these were circulated, in one year. 
  In 1789, she purchased a small house at Cowslip Green in Somerset. She was instrumental in setting up twelve schools in the area by 1800. 
  She continued to oppose slavery throughout her life, but at the time of the Abolition Bill of 1807, her health did not permit her to take as active a role in the movement as she had done in the late 1780s, although she maintained a correspondence with Wilberforce and others.  
  In July 1833, the Bill to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire passed in the House of Commons, followed by the House of Lords on August 1st. 
  Hannah More died on September 7th, 1833.

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  The Case of Vincent Pyrwhtt -...

  Barry Pain

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  Barry Eric Odell Pain was born at 3 Sydney Street in Cambridge on 28th September 1864. He was one of 4 children. 
  He was educated at Sedbergh School and then Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 
  In 1889, Cornhill Magazine published his short story ‘The Hundred Gates’.  This opened the way for Pain to advance his literary career on several fronts. He became a contributor to Punch and The Speaker, as well as joining the staff of both the Daily Chronicle and Black and White.  
  Pain was also a noted and prominent contributor to The Granta and from 1896 to 1928 a regular contributor to the Windsor Magazine. 
  It is often said that Pain was discovered by Robert Louis Stevenson, who compared his work to that of Guy de Maupassant.  It’s an apt comparison. Pain was a master of disturbing prose but was also able to inject parody and light comedy into many of his works.  A simple premise could in his hands suddenly expand into a world very real but somehow emotionally fraught and on the very edge of darkness. 
  Barry Pain died on 5th May 1928 in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

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  The Dog Who Unleashed The Truth...

  Suresh Nair

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  A dog sets out on an unlikely path of revenge against the family who left him to die -- by publishing his tell-all memoirs!  
  An elderly man is at his wit’s end trying to figure how to deal with his wife’s inexplicable decision to divorce him. 
  A “girl” in her 40s learns on a dating site that there are no free lunches and free iPhones in this world. 
  A failed writer sets out to commit suicide and finds himself catapulted into a future where he is successful – and dead under suspicious circumstances.  
  A hypochondriac steps out of his comfort zone to do one brave act during the Covid lockdown…  
  Here’s a novelette and a collection of short stories to put a smile on your face. Filled with characters and situations ranging from silly and mundane to quirky and absurd, this is a breezy rollercoaster ride.

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  Shadow - A Parable

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Title: Shadow – A Parable 
  Author: Edgar Allan Poe 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1835 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 42 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  “Shadow – A Parable” by Edgar Allan Poe is a brief yet profound meditation on death, memory, and the fragile line between the living and the departed. Set amid the aftermath of pestilence, seven figures gather in a dimly lit chamber, haunted by the ghostly presence of a shifting shadow that speaks not to the ear but to the soul. 
  First published in 1835, this early work reveals Poe’s mastery of atmosphere and allegory — a fusion of Biblical solemnity and gothic despair. The story’s vision of mortality and the dissolution of self foreshadows the existential darkness that would come to define Poe’s later works. 
  Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance imbues Poe’s haunting prose with a spectral intensity — a voice that rises from the silence of the grave to whisper of humanity’s inevitable end. While the text is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to resurrecting the masters of the macabre, Shadow – A Parable stands as an eerie meditation on the universality of death — a moment when even the proudest voices of the living fall silent beneath the eternal shadow.

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