Showing results by narrator "Elliot Fitzpatrick" in All Categories

Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays.

Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family. Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres. She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics. Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays.

The great author of Vanity Fair and The Luck Of Barry Lyndon was born in India in 1811. At age 5 his father died and his mother sent him back to England. His education was of the best but he himself seemed unable to apply his talents to a rigorous work ethic. However, once he harnessed his talents the works flowed in novels, articles, short stories, sketches and lectures.

The Middle East is in crisis. The shocking events of the war in Gaza have rocked the entire region. More than a decade ago, the Arab Spring had raised hopes of a new beginning but instead ushered in a series of civil wars, coups, and even harsher autocracies. Tensions were exacerbated by the meddling of outsiders. The United States, for so long the dominant actor, had stepped back, leaving a vacuum behind it to be fought over. Christopher Phillips explores geopolitical rivalries in the region, and the major external powers vying for influence.

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society. In this volume we offer up a small selection of talents from the literary landscape of the Russian male author whose time has now come again.

When Alexandra May, the secretary to the British ambassador, vanishes in Berlin, Sam Taylor is sent to find her. But this isn’t just a missing person case—Alexandra’s disappearance threatens a critical deal. Soon, Sam becomes a target of Russian agents and uncovers the embassy’s betrayal runs deeper than anyone imagined. Forced to team up with the mysterious Caretaker, a deadly operative from a covert unit, Sam must navigate corrupt diplomats and brutal assassins to expose the real traitors.

The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length. Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced.

Thunderclap Newman stunned the music world in the summer of 1969 with the success of their wonderfully odd debut single "Something In The Air", which ousted none other than the Beatles from the top of the charts. They followed up with an LP described by Nik Cohn as "one of the finest, most truly bizarre albums of the era" before disintegrating just a few months after its release. This is the story of one of the most unlikely combos in popular music history, and of the four disparate characters who formed its core.

Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was born on February 24th, 1848 at Alwington, near Kingston, Canada West (now part of Ontario). He was the second son of the Rev. Joseph Antisell Allen, a Protestant minister from Dublin, Ireland and Catharine Ann Grant, the daughter of the fifth Baron of Longueuil. Grant Allen is rarely heard of today, although an occasional short story can be heard on the radio or reprinted among magazine enthusiasts but in his time he did much to entertain the masses and push several genres along a richer journey they are still proceeding on today.

Ernest Richard Suffling is one of those authors about whom little is known. In his career he wrote across travel, local history, and folklore. His short stories bring out another side of his literary style that, though now neglected, add measurably to the genre.

There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.

George Allen Upward was born in 1863. He was a poet, lawyer, politician and teacher. His poetry was included in the first anthology of Imagist poetry, ‘Des Imagistes’, edited by Ezra Pound in 1914. His short stories were also very popular in their day.

Edward Harold Begbie was born 1871. He was primarily a journalist, poet and the author of several dozen books. His works also included studies of the Christian religion. He wrote numerous other books, including on political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, plays and poetry. His short stories are highly regarded.

Arabella Kenealy was born in 1859. A writer of short stories that had much merit she was also a physician and active in the fight against early feminism. She died in 1938.

William Mudford was born in 1782. He was a writer, essayist, translator and journalist. This short story was first published in 1830 and, it is claimed, influenced Edgar Allan Poe. Such was its impact that it was reprinted many times over the succeeding decades.

James Edward Preston Muddock was born in 1843. He was a prolific journalist and of mystery and horror short stories. He used two pseudonyms ‘Joyce Emmerson Preston Muddock’ and ‘Dick Donovan’. Between 1889 and 1922 he published nearly 300 detective and mystery stories.

Major Hesketh Vernon Prichard, DSO MC FRGS FZS was born on the 17th November 1876 in Jhansi, North-Western Provinces, India, then part of the British Empire. His achievements in life, beyond his literary career, are both voluminous and startling. He was an explorer, adventurer, marksman, game hunter and first-class cricketer. In his literary career he wrote short stories, novels, travel pieces and was also a newspaper correspondent.

Violet Mary Firth wrote under her pen name Dion Fortune. Born in 1890 her talents included being a occultist, ceremonial magician, novelist and author. She wrote prolifically, much of it on occult themes.

Jessie Douglas Kerruish was born in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, County Durham in 1884. Her literary career got off to a very bright start in 1917 when she won the Hodder & Stoughton First Novel Prize for ‘Miss Haroun Al-Raschid’. Five years later came her seminal work ‘The Undying Monster’, which today is still regarded as a macabre werewolf classic. Throughout her career she contributed short stories to such popular periodicals as Novel, Lady's and Weekly Tale-Teller. One of the best was ‘The Wonderful Tune’ and whilst the title sounds light and airy her dark imagination riddles the narrative.

José Maria de Eça de Queiroz or Queirós was born in 1845 and has gained his literary reputation as the greatest Portuguese writer in the realist style. He died in 1900.