Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Cap'n Jollyfax, a retired sea captain, has a brass cannon which he likes to fire on special occasions. New Year, Waterloo day, the anniversary of Nelson's funeral, Trafalgar day, everyone's birthdays, weddings, christenings and every other occasion. His neighbour, the widow Mrs Billing, has a great dislike for the gun. So when Cap'n Jollyfax and Mrs Billing become engaged to be married it is perhaps not surprising that there is a dispute about the future of the gun...a dispute with hilarious consequences.

'The Green Door' is a classic O. Henry tale. A young adventurer, strolling one evening along Broadway, is handed a card by a man advertising a dentist's services. But when he inspects the card he discovers that the card given to him has on it only three words: 'The Green Door'.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842-circa 1914) was an American author, journalist, short story writer and satirist who disappeared in 1913 under mysterious circumstances and was never seen again. "The Moonlit Road" is a brilliant and eerie ghost story which recounts a terrible murder of a woman from three different viewpoints.

Sophie Chattel-Monkheim was a socialist by conviction and a Chattel-Monkheim by marriage. When the Duke of Serbia does her the honour of joining her house party, despite her left-wing leanings, Sophie is determined to make a good impression. So she hires an emergency chef who is an expert in making Byzantine omelettes. Within a very short time the entire household is thrown into disarray....

Timothy Shay Arthur (1809 - 1885), who wrote as T. S. Arthur, was a popular 19th-century American author. 'An Angel in Disguise' is an uplifting story of a childless couple who reluctantly take in a disabled child and discover what joy and fulfilment it brings them.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842 - circa 1914) was an American author, journalist, short story writer and satirist who disappeared in 1913 under mysterious circumstances and was never seen again. "John Bartine's Watch" is the strange and terrifying tale of an evening guest who reacts with horror when his host asks him the time. But why is John Bartine so reluctant to look at his own watch?

Andrew Soutar (1879 - 1941) was a British author and journalist best known for his novels and short stories. The Jade Earrings is the story of an elderly antiques collector with a young and pretty wife, Rosetta. One day he presents her with a pair of jade earrings with a legend attached to them. It is said that any faithful wife who wears them will become unfaithful.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. In this story, Miss Martha's good deed in helping a man whom she takes for an impoverished artist goes very wrong.

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. 'The Disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh' is a tale recounted by a traveller on a train to a fellow passenger. It concerns the bizarre circumstances of the mysterious disappearance...and reappearance after eight years...of his formidable and tyrannical aunt.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories, known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and surprise endings. 'The Robe of Peace' is a story which explains the mysterious disappearance of New York's leading swell, the fashion king Johnny Bellchambers.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. 'A Newspaper Story' is an ingenious tale about a lost newspaper blowing through the streets of New York. Each passer-by who comes into contact with any part of it is personally impacted by one of the stories in the paper - but not in the way one would expect.

'The Goldfish' is a strange tale set in the murky underworld of the London docklands. Dor, a raffish petty criminal in London, has a treasured goldfish in a bowl, which his lover, Rosa, reluctantly takes care of, although she is secretly insanely jealous of the attention he lavishes on the fish. The goldfish was given to Dor by a Chinese man who conducted a strange ceremony over the two of them and declared that Dor cannot die while the goldfish still lives.

'A Comedy of Capricorn' is a humorous romantic tale. When Gwendolen invites the supremely eligible animal lover Lord Bampton to meet her parents so that he can ask permission to court her, she warns her family of the visitor's fondness for pets. Even the butler is warned to allow any strange or exotic animal which might accompany his Lordship into the drawing room without batting an eyelid. So when a stray goat turns up by chance at the same time as Lord Bampton, chaos, confusion and hilarity are predestined.

'Ways of Escape' is a mystery story. The strange Mrs. Trevarrian lives in a lonely cottage on the moors with her elderly housemaid. The villagers are beginning to suspect that there is something rather odd about the lady. In particular, she has a studio photograph of a maidservant on her mantelpiece and tells all visitors that she hopes to get this maid to return to her house again in the future.

'The Pursuing Shadow' is the story of Spatz, an unscrupulous and self-absorbed businessman who has left a trail of devastation behind him in the form of destroyed business partners, one of whom lost an arm as a result of a suicide attempt when cheated by Spatz. But karma catches up with everyone, and the amputee finally returns to find Spatz at the precise moment of his own downfall.

Mrs. Scarr is a tense and mysterious ghost story set in Mauritius, a place where local mythology and European morals sit uneasily alongside one another. Mrs. Scarr is a beautiful woman of French origin who defies local cultural norms. She goes out alone at night and wears white rather than the traditional black. And her husband, who is a debauched sea captain, is mysteriously plagued by a single white moth wherever he goes.

Bats in the Belfry is a humorous short story in the tradition of the Victorian bedroom farce. Percy Biffin, an awkward house-guest at the summer residence of Sir Borwick Trout, is unexpectedly called on in the middle of the night to remove a bat from the beautiful young Julia Trout's bedroom. His presence in the young lady's bedroom is misinterpreted by every person who learns of it...and the more Biffin tries to extricate himself, the worse the situation becomes.

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. The Lost Sanjak' is the last-minute account by a condemned man, speaking to the prison chaplain, telling the astounding story of how he came to be condemned to hang for the murder of...himself!

Stella Benson (1892-1933) was an English feminist, novelist, poet, and short story and travel writer. The Man Who Fell in Love with the Cooperative Stores is an amusing allegorical story about mercenary love, the gullibility of those men who keep a mistress and the cynicism of those women who accept this kind of relationship.

A fascinating collection of classic short stories featuring unusual ways of making a living, including 'The Umbrella-Mender' by Beatrice Harraden, 'The Triumphs of a Taxidermist' by H. G. Wells, 'A Pair of Silk Stockings' by Kate Chopin, 'A Skinful of Trouble' by Arthur Morrison, 'White Magic' by Ella d'Arcy, 'A Deal in Ostriches' by H. G. Wells, and many more.