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William Pett Ridge was born at Chartham, near Canterbury, Kent, on 22 April 1859. His family’s resources were certainly limited. His father was a Railway Porter, and the young Pett Ridge, after schooling in Marden, Kent became a Clerk in a railway clearing-house. The hours were long and arduous, but self-improvement was Pett Ridge’s goal. After working from nine until seven o’clock he would attend evening classes at Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institute to follow his passion: the ambition to write.

George Robert Gissing was born on November 22, 1857, in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent. By the age of 10 he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero. In 1872, Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there, Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876.

Arthur Morrison was born on November 1st, 1863, in Poplar, in the East End of London. From the age of eight, after the death of his father, he was brought up, along with two siblings, by his mother, Jane. This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialised imprint from Deadtree Publishing. Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes and many compilations.

The short stories written during and about World War I are often overshadowed by the excellent verse of the War Poets. Yet the short story is perhaps their equal in other ways. Within these succinct little time capsules of words are captured ideas, attitudes, feelings and life that are expressed in a few minutes just as movingly, imaginatively and tellingly as in any other form. Some of these stories will be familiar, but some may not. From Virginia Woolf to Katharine Mansfield and John Buchan to C. E. Montague, various writing styles try to make sense of this world at war.

Thomas Burke was born Sydney Thomas Burke on November 29th, 1886 in Eltham, London (at the time it was part of Kent). An author in the early years of the century who brought his skills of pen and eye to parts of London, specifically the Limehouse district of the East End, and wrote with drive and vigour about the characters he met and the places that he knew.

The short stories written during and about World War I are often overshadowed by the excellent verse of the War Poets. Yet the short story is perhaps their equal in other ways. Within these succinct little time capsules of words are captured ideas, attitudes, feelings and life that are expressed in a few minutes just as movingly, imaginatively and tellingly as in any other form. Some of these stories will be familiar, but some may not. From Virginia Woolf to Katharine Mansfield and John Buchan to C. E. Montague, various writing styles try to make sense of this world at war.

Philip Edward Thomas was born on 3rd March 1878 at 14 Lansdowne Gardens in Stockwell, Lambeth, which was then a part of Surrey. His family had a rich Welsh heritage. Thomas was educated at Battersea Grammar School before proceeding to St Paul's School in London and then becoming a history scholar, between 1898-1900, at Lincoln College, Oxford. Whilst still studying for his degree he married Helen Berenice Noble in June 1899, in Fulham, London.

James Elroy Flecker was born on 5th November 1884, in Lewisham, London. Flecker does not seem to have enjoyed academic study and achieved only a Third-Class Honours in Greats in 1906. This did not set him up for a job in either government service or the academic world. After some frustrating forays at school teaching he attempted to join the Levant Consular Service and entered Cambridge to study for two years. After a poor first year he pushed forward in the second and achieved First-Class honours. His reward was a posting to Constantinople at the British consulate.

Wilfred Owen was born on 18th March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, near Oswestry in Shropshire, the eldest of four children. His mother's strong Anglican views passed through to Wilfred, and the Bible, along with books on the Romantic poets, particularly John Keats, were particular favourites and contributed to his initial devotion to the church. In 1913 Wilfred began work as a private tutor teaching English and French at the Berlitz School of Languages in Bordeaux, France, and later with a family.

Rupert Chawner Brooke was born at 5 Hillmorton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, on 3rd August 1887, the third of four children. Brooke attended preparatory school nearby at Hillbrow and then went on to Rugby School. In 1905, he became friends with St. John Lucas, who thereafter became something of a mentor to him. While travelling in Europe he worked on a thesis, 'John Webster and the Elizabethan Drama', which won him a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge.

Robert Laurence Binyon, CH, was born on 10th August 1869 in Lancaster in Lancashire, England, to Quaker parents, Frederick Binyon and Mary Dockray. He studied at St Paul's School, London, before enrolling at Trinity College, Oxford, to read classics. Binyon’s first published work was Persephone in 1890. As a poet, his output was not prodigious, and, in the main, the volumes he did publish were slim, but his reputation was of the highest order. When the Poet Laureate, Alfred Austin, died in 1913, Binyon was considered alongside Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling....

Israel Zangwill was born in London on 21st January 1864, to a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His writing earned him the sobriquet ‘the Dickens of the Ghetto’ primarily based on his much-lauded novel Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People in 1892 and its glimpse of the poverty-stricken life in London's Jewish quarter.

The United States has July 4th, Ireland St Patrick’s Day and France Bastille Day. Most Nations celebrate a particular day as ‘theirs’. That day is when they turn to themselves; to reflect on the past, to revel in the present and to look forward to the future. For England 23rd April is St George’s Day. St George, a hero from bygone days, who slays dragons and pursues other mythic deeds, is part of childhood. But for modern times, for modern nations, a greater purpose is needed. For England St George is best now described as a principle.

Scotland’s official national day is St Andrew's Day, the feast day of Saint Andrew. In the Bible it is Andrew who introduces his brother Peter to Jesus as the Messiah. As well as Scotland he is also the patron saint of the likes of Russia, Greece, the Ukraine, and Barbados. It is thought that the day was first celebrated over a thousand years ago in the reign of Malcolm III (1034-1093).

Adelaide Anne Procter was born on 30th October, 1825 at 25 Bedford Square in the Bloomsbury district of London. Her literary career began whilst still a teenager. Many of her poems were published by the great Charles Dickens in his periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round before being later published in book form.

The Cockney Novelists flourished towards the end of the 19th century and spilled over into the next. They included Arthur Morrison, Edwin Pugh, William Pett Ridge and Clarence Rook. Authors being authors, they, of course, dealt with their subject matter in different ways. As a group they moved away from treating the London working classes as comedy cameos or social stereotypes.

Stacy Aumonier was born at Hampstead Road near Regent’s Park, London, on 31st March 1877. He came from a family with a strong and sustained tradition in the visual arts - sculptors and painters. This volume comes to you from Miniature Masterpieces, a specialised imprint from Deadtree Publishing. Our range is large and growing and covers single authors, themes, and many compilations.

John Buchan was born on August 26th 1875. After a brief career in the legal profession he began a twin career as writer and politician. He was a prodigious writer not just of fiction but of such acclaimed works as a 24 volume history of World War I. It was during the war, where, as a sideline writing propaganda, he wrote his most famous work, ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’. Its hero, Richard Hannay, continues his story in other Buchan novels, most notably Greenmantle (1916) and Mr Standfast (1919).

One of the greatest of English poets, Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, in 1552 and went to school at Merchant Taylors' School and later at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1579, he published The Shepheardes Calender, his first major work. Edmund journeyed to Ireland in July 1580, in the service of the newly appointed Lord Deputy, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. His time included the terrible massacre at the Siege of Smerwick. The epic poem The Faerie Queene is acknowledged as Edmund’s masterpiece.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE, was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on March 13, 1884. His father was an Anglican clergyman which involved postings abroad. Walpole’s early education was by a Governess until, in 1893, his parents decided he needed a better education and the young boy was sent to England. He first attended a preparatory school in Truro followed by Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow in 1895, where he was bullied, frightened and miserable.