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  Evil Clergyman The (Unabridged)

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  "The Evil Clergyman" is an excerpt from a letter written by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft in 1933. After his death, it was published in the April 1939 issue of Weird Tales as a short story. The story was later adapted into the unreleased 1987 anthology film Pulse Pounders. The letter, to his friend Bernard Austin Dwyer, recounted a dream that Lovecraft had had. Although Lovecraft frequently based stories on his dreams, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia notes that " is difficult to say how HPL would have developed this conventional supernatural scenario.

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  A Little Holiday - From their...

  Oswald Sickert

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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 Oswald Sickert.

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  The Canterville Ghost

  Oscar Wilde

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  "What happens when a centuries-old ghost meets a modern family that simply refuses to be scared?"
  
  For three hundred years, Sir Simon de Canterville has been the pride of the British supernatural world, haunting his ancestral home with bloodstains and rattling chains. But his reign of terror comes to a screeching halt when the Otis family, a group of pragmatic and unimpressed Americans, moves in. Armed with "Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover" and "Rising Sun Lubricator" for his squeaky chains, the Otises treat the ghost not as a nightmare, but as a nuisance. In this brilliant satire, Oscar Wilde pits old-world tradition against new-world practicality, leading to a conclusion that is as moving as it is witty.
  
  The Comedy of Terrors: The humor lies in the ghost's growing frustration. Sir Simon takes his "haunting" as a serious profession, and his inability to frighten the rambunctious Otis twins leads to a hilarious reversal where the ghost becomes the victim of the living. It is a masterclass in the "Comedy of Manners."
  
  A Touch of True Redemption: Beyond the laughs, the story shifts gears when the young Virginia Otis encounters the weary ghost. Her compassion leads to a beautiful and poetic finale, exploring themes of forgiveness, death, and the power of love to bridge the gap between two worlds.
  
  Why It Is a Timeless Favorite: The Canterville Ghost is perfect for readers of all ages. It offers the biting social commentary Wilde is famous for, wrapped in a fast-paced, entertaining plot that moves from slapstick comedy to profound allegory in just a few pages.
  
  Meet the world's most frustrated phantom. Purchase "The Canterville Ghost" today.

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  A Model Crime - From their pens...

  William Pett Ridge

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  William Pett Ridge was born at Chartham, near Canterbury, Kent, on 22nd April 1859.  
  His family’s resources were certainly limited. His father was a railway porter, and the young Pett Ridge, after schooling in Marden, Kent became a clerk in a railway clearing-house. The hours were long and arduous, but self-improvement was Pett Ridge’s goal.  After working from nine until seven o’clock he would attend evening classes at Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institute and then to follow his passion; the ambition to write.  He was heavily influenced by Dickens and several critics thought he had the capability to be his successor.  
  From 1891 many of his humourous sketches were published in the St James's Gazette, the Idler, Windsor Magazine and other literary periodicals of the day. 
  Pett Ridge published his first novel in 1895, A Clever Wife. By the advent of his fifth novel, Mord Em'ly, a mere three years later in 1898, his success was obvious.  His writing was written from the perspective of those born with no privilege and relied on his great talent to find humour and sympathy in his portrayal of working class life. 
  Today Pett Ridge and other East End novelists including Arthur Nevinson, Arthur Morrison and Edwin Pugh are being grouped together as the Cockney Novelists.   
  In 1924, Pugh set out his recollections of Pett Ridge from the 1890s: “I see him most clearly, as he was in those days, through a blue haze of tobacco smoke. We used sometimes to travel together from Waterloo to Worcester Park on our way to spend a Saturday afternoon and evening with H. G. Wells. Pett Ridge does not know it, but it was through watching him fill his pipe, as he sat opposite me in a stuffy little railway compartment, that I completed my own education as a smoker... Pett Ridge had a small, dark, rather spiky moustache in those days, and thick, dark, sleek hair which is perhaps not quite so thick or dark, though hardly less sleek nowadays than it was then”. 
  With his success, on the back of his prolific output and commercial success, Pett Ridge gave generously of both time and money to charity. In 1907 he founded the Babies Home at Hoxton.  This was one of several organisations that he supported that had the welfare of children as their mission.  
  His circle considered Pett Ridge to be one of life's natural bachelors. In 1909 they were rather surprised therefore when he married Olga Hentschel.  
  As the 1920’s arrived Pett Ridge added to his popularity with the movies. Four of his books were adapted into films.  
  Pett Ridge now found the peak of his fame had passed. Although he still managed to produce a book a year he was falling out of fashion and favour with the reading public and his popularity declined rapidly.  His canon runs to over sixty novels and short-story collections as well as many pieces for magazines and periodicals. 
  William Pett Ridge died, on 29th September 1930, at his home, Ampthill, Willow Grove, Chislehurst, at the age of 71. 
  He was cremated at West Norwood on 2nd October 1930.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  F Scott itzgerald, Sherwood...

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In this volume the Jazz Age blossoms with an exuberance of spirit and panache.  Life is for now, the future seems so very far away.  Our American authors bring the decade to life with stories that perhaps could only come to pass in this decade of the United States. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - The 1920's - The Americans - An Introduction 
  02 - Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F Scott Fitzgerald 
  03 - Brothers by Sherwood Anderson 
  04 - The Color Out of Space by H P Lovecraft 
  05 - The Great Slave by Zane Grey 
  06 - The Golden Honeymoon by Ring Lardner 
  07 - The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell 
  08 - The Difference by Ellen Glasgow 
  09 - Skulls in the Stars by Robert E Howard 
  10 - The City of Refuge by Rudolph Fisher 
  11 - Spurs by Tod Robbins

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  Bethel Merriday

  Sinclair Lewis

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  “Bethel Merriday” is a novel by Sinclair Lewis, first published in 1940. The book depicts the journey of an aspiring young actress, Bethel Merriday, and her life in a touring company. Most of the story surrounds her time in an acting troupe preparing for and performing a ‘modern’ version of "Romeo and Juliet".

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