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  The Daughter of Pontius Pilate -...

  Ivan Vazov

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  Ivan Minchov Vazov was born on the 9th July 1850 (although that date is disputed) in the town of Sopot, in Bulgaria, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire.  
   
  After primary education at the local school he was sent to Kalofer to continue his studies and work as an assistant teacher.  He later spent a short time in Plodiv where he began to write poetry. 
   
  Fascinated by literature he abandoned work as an apprentice to move to Brăila, in Romania, where he lived with exiled revolutionaries and befriended the poet Hristo Botev. 
   
  By 1874, he had joined the struggle for independence from the Ottomans and returned to Sopot. After the failure of the 1876 uprising he had to flee the country, going back to Galaţi, in Romania, where most of the surviving revolutionaries were exiled. There he was appointed a secretary of the committee. 
   
  In 1876 he published his first work, ‘Priaporetz and Gusla’, followed by ‘Bulgaria's Sorrows’ in 1877. 
   
  Bulgaria regained its independence in 1878 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War and Vazov wrote the famous ‘Epic of the Forgotten’.  He now became the editor of the political reviews Science and Dawn.  
   
  Exile was forced upon him once again due to the persecution of the Russophile political faction. Later he returned to Bulgaria with his mother’s help, and started teaching and then became a civil servant. 
   
  He moved to Sofia in 1889 where he started publishing the review Dennitsa. 
   
  His 1888 novel ‘Under the Yoke’, depicting Ottoman oppression, is his most famous work and has been translated into over 30 languages. 
   
  During his life he became a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of Bulgaria.  
   
  In 1917, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. 
   
  Ivan Vazov died on September 22nd, 1921.  He was 71.

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  The Lost World

  Sir Aarthur Conan Doyl

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  So accustomed are we to numerous cinematic films depicting Dinosaurs (resurrected from their extinction through various dramatic devices) running amok amongst the human race, from King Kong to Jurassic Park, that we forget that it was the creator of Sherlock Holmes who was amongst the first to imagine such a scenario. 
   After so many years of the cerebral Holmes, Conan Doyle must have revelled in his colourful new character of Professor Challenger. He is a bear of a man with an appetite for self-advancement, adventure and controversy who leads an expedition into the forests of South America to vindicate his claim that a lost world lay hidden in that vast continent. 
  This is Conan Doyle away from the constraints of Baker Street and one gets the feeling that the author makes the most of the possibilities, pitting his heroes against dinosaurs, treacherous guides, inhospitable terrain and not least a race of vicious ape men. 
  Conan tells his rip-roaring adventure with all his usual descriptive skill and verve. 
  Head Stories presents Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" narrated by Simon Hester. With original music.

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  War and Peace (Book Ten: 1812)

  Leo Tolstoy

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  War and Peace is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It was first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature.
  Book 10: 1812: Napoleon began the war with Russia because he could not resist going to Dresden, could not help having his head turned by the homage he received, could not help donning a Polish uniform and yielding to the stimulating influence of a June morning, and could not refrain from bursts of anger in the presence of Kurákin and then of Balashëv.

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  The Moon And Sixpence

  Somerset Maugham

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  "The Moon and Sixpence" is a captivating novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1919. Loosely inspired by the life of the renowned French artist Paul Gauguin, the story delves into the life of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged Englishman leading a seemingly ordinary life as a stockbroker in London. However, Strickland's life takes a drastic turn when he abruptly abandons his family and career to pursue his burning passion for art in the bohemian world of early 20th-century Paris. 
   
  As Strickland immerses himself in the world of painting, he undergoes a profound transformation, shedding his societal constraints and embracing an unconventional and often controversial lifestyle. His single-minded devotion to his art takes him to far-flung places, including the South Pacific, where he seeks inspiration amidst primitive cultures. Through Strickland's relentless pursuit of artistic expression, Maugham explores themes of artistic genius, the clash between societal norms and individual desires, and the sacrifices an artist may make in the name of their craft. 
   
  "The Moon and Sixpence" is a thought-provoking exploration of the tension between conformity and the pursuit of one's true calling. Maugham's narrative skillfully captures Strickland's enigmatic character and the turbulent emotions that drive him. The novel challenges readers to contemplate the price of artistic freedom and the complexities of the human spirit in the face of unconventional choices, making it a timeless work that continues to resonate with those who seek to understand the nature of artistic genius and the sacrifices it may entail.

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  Christmas Tales

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

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  This work is a selection of Christmas stories (or sometimes chapters) of Lucy Maud Montgomery from different sources and different times. The focus is widened a bit to include a few works about Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. LMM was a prolific Canadian author in the early 20th century whose works were very popular in her own country as well as the United States, and indeed around the world. Perhaps her most read novel was her first, Anne Of Green Gables. Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE, published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. She published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays.

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  Mateo Falcone

  Prosper Mérimée

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  There are stories that strike like a bullet—swift, precise, and inescapable. Mateo Falcone is one of them.
  In the sun-scorched Corsican wilderness, where honor is measured in blood and a man's word is as unyielding as the mountains, a moment of hesitation can seal one's fate. A fugitive seeking refuge, a child faced with an impossible choice, a father whose sense of justice knows no mercy—Mérimée paints a world where tradition rules with an iron grip, and betrayal, no matter how small, does not go unanswered.
  There are no heroes here, no villains—only the weight of an unwritten law, passed down through generations, and the chilling certainty of what must come next. A tale as sharp as a knife's edge, Mateo Falcone lingers in the mind long after the final page, leaving behind the echo of a single gunshot and the question: what price does honor demand?

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