Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents is a superb and varied collection of 15 of Wells' best stories, first published in 1894.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Magic Shop' is the story of a small boy and his father who go into a shop which appears to sell magic tricks. But the proprietor insists that all the tricks are really genuine magic, and the longer they stay in the shop the stranger the tricks become. Then the shopkeeper performs one truly terrifying trick...and what happens next is very peculiar....

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Moth' is the strange tale of two rivalling entomologists, each determined to demolish the other's life's work. When one of them dies, the other struggles to cope in the absence of his rival. And then he discovers an entirely new species of moth - a moth very reminiscent of his dead rival - and which pursues him wherever he goes.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Treasure in the Forest' is the tale of two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker, who have murdered a Chinese man to steal his map, which locates a buried stash of gold ingots. The Chinese man had boasted that he had ensured the safety of his secret hoard. But what can he have meant by this?

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Hammerpond Park Burglary' is a tongue in cheek story about a burglary which initially goes badly wrong...but then unexpectedly goes extraordinarily right.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels, and is often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'Aepyornis Island' is the strange tale of a naturalist who finds himself adrift in a canoe in the Indian Ocean, with three mysterious rare giant eggs which he has collected. He knows they are the eggs of the aepyornis - a bird which has been extinct for hundreds of years. He is amazed, when hunger forces him to try one of the eggs, to find that it is fresh.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Lord of the Dynamos' is the story of an immigrant worker who becomes captivated by the huge electric dynamo in the shed where he works. He begins to see it as a great deity...a god who demands human sacrifices.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes' is the strange tale of an inexplicable case of a scientist who, after an accident with a magnet and a flash of lightning, finds that his eyes no longer see the world where the rest of his body is but another part of the world altogether - a southern hemisphere island inhabited by penguins.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels. 'The Diamond Maker' is the story of a self-taught chemistry enthusiast who is obsessed with developing a process for creating artificial diamonds.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of short stories and novels, who is best remembered as the father of science fiction. 'The Flying Man' is a strange adventure story. A young lieutenant explains how it is that a remote tribe of natives believe him to have supernatural powers - including the ability to fly. And a very remarkable story it is!

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Flowering of the Strange Orchid' is a creepy horror story about an orchid collector who buys an unknown species from the Andaman Islands. The botanist who collected it had died in a mangrove swamp in the process - allegedly from an attack of jungle leeches.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is credited as being the father of science fiction. 'In the Avu Observatory' is a story about a scientist working at a remote observatory in a remote forest in Borneo. One night, the astronomer's assistant, Woodhouse, is attacked by a huge bat-like creature in the middle of the night. In the pitch black of the observatory, he suddenly finds himself fighting for his life against...what?

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is credited with being the father of science fiction. 'A Deal in Ostriches' is an amusing tale about a situation on a ship returning from the Indies with several passengers and five ostriches on board. One of the ostriches swallows a valuable diamond - but nobody knows which bird it was.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Stolen Bacillus' is the tale of an eminent bacteriologist whose test-tube of live cholera bacteria is stolen by an anarchist who plans to release it into London's water supply.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer who is best remembered for his science fiction novels. 'The Temptation of Haringay' is the strange tale of an unsuccessful artist who is unexpectedly approached with an offer by the devil - his soul in return for the thing he most yearns for....

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of stories and novels, and is credited as the father of science fiction. 'Through a Window' is the story of an invalid whose entire entertainment consists of watching the events outside his window, which looks out onto a river. He watches all the boats as they pass and longs for anything unusual to happen. Then one day just about the most jaw-dropping set of events imaginable happens right outside his window....

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer of science fiction stories and novels, and is often credited as the father of science fiction. 'The Triumphs of the Taxidermist' is a tongue in cheek macabre tale of a taxidermist's anecdotes of strange creatures he has stuffed, ranging from fraudulent birds to human beings.

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) was a prolific English writer best known for his outstanding science fiction stories and novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. 'The Crystal Egg' is a science fiction short story about an antiquarian dealer, Mr. Cave, who discovers that a crystal egg in his shop has strange properties. In certain light conditions it functions as a window on the planet Mars and he is able to observe the Martians and their bizarre cities and machines.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856 - 1925), known as H. Rider Haggard, was an English writer of adventure stories, often set in exotic locations, especially Africa, and a pioneer of the Lost World literary genre. Only a Dream is a ghost story about the strange experience of a widower about to remarry, who is visited on the eve of his wedding by the ghastly apparition of his dead first wife.

Gwendolyn Ranger Wormser was a Victorian writer best known for her weird psychological horror stories. 'The Effigy' is the story of Genevieve Evans, a young woman in an unhappy marriage who is dominated by her unscrupulous, controlling father and belittled by her uncaring husband. Her frustration and rage, particularly at her father, whose portrait hangs over the fireplace, are extreme.