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  Whirligigs

  O. Henry

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  Humour - A Short Story Collection

  J.M. Barrie, Jerome K., Mark Twain

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  Humour, A Short Story Collection. The British, it is often said, have a stiff upper lip and a dry sense of humour.  Its true, we usually do and in the case of this perfect compendium of short stories we absolutely do.  Listen to our Scottish raconteur JM Barrie and English wits, Jerome K Jerome and Edward Lear for perfect proof of that.  But humour is many things and from many places so we also feature Mark Twain, our very talented American friend to complete this rather witty and clever volume of short stories.  Our readers include Richard Mitchley and James Taylor.

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  The Colour Out of Space

  H.P. Lovecraft

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  Set in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, an unnamed narrator investigates a local area known as the 'blasted hearth.' After failing to extract any information from the Arkham locals, the narrator encounters an old man, Ammi Pierce, who relates the story of a farmer who once lived there. The hearth, he claims, was caused by a meteorite that fell onto the farmer's field in 1882. The Color Out of Space is one of H.P. Lovecraft's best-loved and most critically acclaimed stories. According to the author, it was also his personal favorite.

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  The Trees of Pride

  G. K. Chesterton

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  Three trees, known as the Peacock trees, are blamed by the peasants for the fever that has killed many. Squire Vane scoffs at this legend as superstition. To prove them wrong, once and for all, he takes a bet to spend the night in the trees. In the morning he has vanished. Is he dead, and if so who has killed him? The poet? The lawyer? The woodsman? The trees

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  The Ebb-Tide

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  Three men down on their luck in Tahiti agree to ship out on a vessel whose officers have died of smallpox.Their desperate venture inspires them to a further idea: they will steal the schooner and its cargo of champagne, sell them, and live a plentiful life. The thought is intoxicating... and so is the cargo, which they sample. Inattention nearly brings them to grief in a sudden storm. This sobering experience is followed by another — apparently the dead officers had a similar ambition! — and their dreams of riches vanish.

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  The Ghost in the Garden Room

  Elizabeth Gaskell

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  Elizabeth Stevenson was born in Chelsea in London on 29th September 1810.  
   
  Both parents embedded their strong Unitarian beliefs into Elizabeth who rebelliously was often reluctant to display these religious convictions.  
   
  The early death of Elizabeth’s mother saw her sent away to be brought up by her maternal aunt in Knutsford, Cheshire.  
   
  Her father now remarried but Elizabeth spent most of her childhood in Cheshire away from her father and his new family but was supportive towards her half-siblings.  
   
  Elizabeth’s aunt encouraged her education and particularly to read and express herself through writing.   
   
  In 1828, her brother John, who worked in the merchant navy, disappeared on a journey to India. This disastrous loss depressed her father, and she went to his household to nurse him for the next year before he died.  
   
  In 1832, she fell in love with William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister like her father, and married him.  They settled in Manchester. This booming industrial city had a great impact on Elizabeth who felt the need to speak up for poor workers and their exploitation by large industrial companies. A collection of poems and short stories, ‘Sketches among the Poor’ appeared in 1837, co-authored by her husband.  Her first major work, under a pseudonym, was ‘Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life’ published in 1848. 
   
  During her career she worked continually with Charles Dickens and published much in his various magazines. With him she published ‘Lizzie Leigh’ in 1850 which dealt with the taboo subject of prostitution.  She was an excellent writer and impressed her many Victorian literary peers. Much of her writing reflects her work as a social critic highlighting the exploitation of the working class and the situation of women in society.  
   
  On 12th November 1865, Elizabeth Gaskell died in Holybourne, Hampshire, after suffering from a heart attack a month earlier.

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