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  The Pearl-fishers

  Robin Jenkins

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  An outsider arrives in rural Scotland, but finds her hopes for a new home elusive in a novel by the author of The Cone-Gatherers: “A remarkable writer.” —The Times When the beautiful pearl-fisher Effie Williamson arrives in a rural Scottish village with her traveler grandparents and siblings not long after the end of World War II, the residents react in many different ways, from hospitable warmth to outright rejection—and tension is exacerbated when the religious, gentle Gavin Hamilton takes the family into his home, the Old Manse. Gavin quickly finds himself drawn to the young woman, but a match with someone like Effie would certainly set off gossip, or worse, among some of the villagers. A difficult love will blossom gradually between Effie and Gavin—under the scrutiny of the watchful locals—in this insightful, emotional novel by a prize-winning author. “As a storyteller, Jenkins has few equals.” —Tribune

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  The Admiral's Daughter

  Julian Stockwin

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  1803. Tensions are escalating again between England and France. Smugglers, perilous storms and a treacherous coastline all threaten to overcome HMS Teazer as her men fight to gain control of the seas. Meanwhile an unlikely rival is seeking her captain's heart. The beautiful admiral's daughter could be the key to realising all Kydd's career ambitions. But high society, he finds, can be as treacherous as his first mistress - the sea.

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  War and Peace Vol 2 (Dole...

  Leo Tolstoy

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  I am inclined to rank Count Tolstoy not among the realists or naturalists, but rather as an impressionist.  He is often careless about accuracy.  Numberless incongruities can be pointed out.  He is as willing to adopt an anachronism as a medieval painter.  I would defy an historian to reconstruct the battle of Austerlitz from Count Tolstoy's description.  And yet what a picture of a battle was ever more vivid!  It is like a painting where the general impression is true, but a close analysis discovers nothing but contradictory lines!What a succession -- a kaleidoscopic succession of life-views, he gives in "War and Peace!"  One follows the other without confusion, naturally, with entrancing interest. "The court and camp, town and country, nobles and peasants, -- all are sketched in with the same broad and sure outline.  We pass at a leap from a soiree to a battle-field, from a mud hovel to a palace, from an idyl to a saturnalia.  As we summon our recollections of the prodigal outpouring of a careless genius, a troop of characters as lifelike as any in Scott or in Shakespeare, defile before our mental eye.  Tolstoy finds endless opportunities of inculcating his favorite themes: -- the mastery of circumstance over will and desire, the weakness of man in the front of things, and the necessity for resignation."  (from the Preface by N.H. Dole)Volume 1Volume 2Volume 3 (to be recorded)Volume 4 (to be recorded)

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  St Bartholomew's Eve

  G. A. Henty

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  Set in the days of the religious wars of Europe, St. Bartholomew's Eve is the tale of the Huguenot's desperate fight for freedom of worship in France. As the struggle intensifies the plot thickens, culminating in the dreadful Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve. Henty, "The Boy's Own Storyteller" weaves the life and adventures of Philip Fletcher and his cousin, Francois DeLaville, into the historical background with thrilling battles, sieges and escapes along the way (not to mention a fair damsel in distress! ). (Summary by Minkona)

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  Lizzie's Secret - Workshop Girls...

  Rosie Clarke

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  London, 1938: Lizzie Larch is a 20-year-old hat maker in London's east end. She is happy and popular, but she carries a secret. Seven years ago she was viciously attacked and recovered in a private sanatorium where she miscarried a child. 
  Lizzie has no memory of the night of the attack, but secrets cannot stay secret for too long. When she starts courting her boss' nephew, a shocking revelation surfaces; threatening to destroy their new-found happiness.

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  The Short Stories of Arthur...

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22nd May 1859.  His childhood was blighted by his father’s heavy drinking which for some years broke up the family. Fortunately, wealthy uncles were willing to support them by paying for education and clothing.  
   
  He was accepted at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and also began to write short stories the first, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe’, was published in Blackwood’s Magazine.  Despite several other stories and some articles in the British Medical Journal his medical studies took priority. 
   
  When these finished he was appointed as Doctor on the Greenland whaler ‘Hope of Peterhead’ in 1880 and then, after graduation, as ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba on its voyage to West Africa. 
   
  1882 saw a move to Plymouth and his own independent practice. With few patients he resumed writing and completed his first novel, ‘The Mystery of Cloomber’, although most of his output was short stories based on his experiences at sea.  
   
  He married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. However, two years later he met and fell in love with Jean Elizabeth Leckie, though they remained platonic out of respect for, and loyalty to, his wife. 
   
  His literary career suddenly burst into life in November 1886 with ‘A Study In Scarlet’, the first of the fabulously successful Sherlock Holmes stories.  
   
  With two children to support he now revisited his haphazard commercial arrangements and curtailed everything save for commissions from the Strand Magazine.  
   
  As a sportsman he was remarkably proficient. He was goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club and played ten first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club as well as captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in East Sussex.  
   
  In 1891 tired of writing Holmes stories, he began a series of historical novels and even went so far as to apparently kill off Holmes in a lethal brawl with his arch-nemesis Moriarty. 
   
  Despite heavy and sustained criticism he continued to write in support of the Boer War, a fact he thought contributed to his knighthood in 1902.  The following year to great relief and acclaim he brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead in his first outing for a decade. 
   
  Sadly, his wife Louisa died from TB in 1906 and, a year later, he at last married Jean.  
   
  During the War and for several years after family deaths had left him depressed. In a search for solace and answers he alighted upon spiritualism and, such was his interest, that he wrote several books on the subject. 
   
  On 7th July 1930 Conan Doyle was discovered in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in East Sussex, clutching his chest dying of a heart attack.  He was 71. 
  01 - Arthur Conan Doyle - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - The Striped Chest by Arthur Conan Doyle 
  03 - How It Happened by Arthur Conan Doyle 
  04 - B24 by Arthur Conan Doyle 
  05 - The Cabman's Story. The Mystery of a London Growler by Arthur Conan Doyle 
  06 - The Final Problem by Arthur Conan Doyle

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