Showing results by narrator "Robert Maskell" in All Categories

The bookshelves of World literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. Among them is the talented and prolific Australian writer Guy Boothby...

A fascinating journey through the history of railways, packed with first-hand accounts of innovation, triumph, and tragedy. From the earliest steam engine to the high-speed bullet trains of today, A Short History of the Railway reveals the hidden stories of railway history across the world - the...

Whatever the reasons given or proffered the reality and known facts are that if you want a really good ghost story to bring that edge of chill, that foreboding of dread, that feeling that in an empty house we are not quite alone and that sometimes the sharp, sheer shock of what just happened is upon us then look no further than ‘The Victorian Ghost Story’ for your listening pleasure.

Dorothy Kathleen Broster was born on 2nd September 1877 at Devon Lodge in Grassendale Park, Garston, Liverpool. Her novels, mainly historical fiction, peaked in popularity with ‘The Flight of the Heron’, in 1925, a best-seller followed up by two sequels. As well as poetry and various articles she also wrote several short stories, the best known of which is a classic of weird fiction ‘The Couching at the Door’ in which an artist appears to be haunted by a mysterious entity.

A fascinating journey through the history of railways, packed with first-hand accounts of innovation, triumph, and tragedy. From the earliest steam engine to the high-speed bullet trains of today, A Short History of the Railway reveals the hidden stories of railway history across the world - the...

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.

Edith Nesbit was born on the 15th August 1858 in Kennington, then part of Surrey. Due to the health issues and tuberculosis of her sister Mary, Nesbit’s early life was one of constant changes of house both in England and on the continent. At age 17, Nesbit met Hubert Bland and they married three years later―whilst she was 7 months pregnant. Bland also kept his affair with another woman going throughout their marriage and the two children of that relationship were raised by Nesbit as well as her own three with Bland.

Edith Nesbit was born on the 15th August 1858 in Kennington, then part of Surrey. Nesbit was an active lecturer and prolific writer on socialism but gradually her work for them dwindled as her career as a children’s writer grew. Her most famous success was ‘The Railway Children’ but she was also very prolific and greatly accomplished in poetry, short stories―especially her macabre ghost and supernatural stories―and novels for adults.

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born on the 1st April 1875 in Greenwich, London. Leaving school at 12 because of truancy, by the age of fifteen he had experience; selling newspapers, as a worker in a rubber factory, as a shoe shop assistant, as a milk delivery boy and as a ship’s cook. In Cape Town in 1898 he met Rudyard Kipling and was inspired to begin writing. His first collection of ballads, The Mission that Failed! was enough of a success that in 1899 he paid his way out of the armed forces in order to turn to writing full time.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865. In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”.

Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes. His literary works were both prolific and covered many topics. In the early part of his career he published many poetry books, even plays, before his darker and more forceful works came to dominate his output.

John Donne was born on the 22nd January 1572 in London, into a Roman Catholic family when Catholicism was illegal in England, and there was turbulence and unrest with both state and church throughout much of Europe. During the 1590s, Donne wrote a wide range of verses, including both erotic and sacred poems, creating two major volumes of work. His strong vivacious and sensual style fusing intellect and passion, as well as inventive use of subtle argument and syntax, provided a new radical perspective that reached beyond his contemporaries.

Lettice Galbraith is yet another of those mysterious women of British literature of whom little was recorded. Lizzie Susan Gibson was born on the 27th January 1859 in Kingston-Upon-Hull in Yorkshire into a comfortable middle-class family. In 1885 she published her first story anonymously and her pseudonym ‘Lettice Galbraith’ only appeared from late 1892.

A train seems a very reliable mode to bring out the best in authors and sometimes the worst in their fictional characters. In this volume our narratives are usually set inside the carriage compartment where they are really up close and personal with each other. All our authors need to do is to light the touchpaper and stand well back.

The bookshelves of European literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is the very talented author of macabre, fantastic and horror fiction, the Polish writer Stefan Grabiński.

The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. Among them is the famed Decadent author and poet Arthur Symons.

One of the most oft-used themes for an author to explore is that of themselves and how they see authors in stories coping with everything around them.

The bookshelves of European literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is the prodigiously talented Edmondo de Amicus...

Alfred Lichtenstein was born on the 23rd August 1889, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, the son of a Jewish manufacturer. He grew up in Berlin before studying law at Erlangen in Bavaria. A writer in the Expressionist style his poems and stories are short but beautifully honed works. His tragically curtailed life allowed only a small part of his talents to rest with us. Undoubtedly a full life would have given the world a very gifted literary force.

Amelia Alderson, an only child, was born on the 12th November 1769 in Norwich, England. After the death of her mother on New Year's Eve 1784 she became her father's housekeeper and hostess. The young Amelia was energetic, attractive, and an admirer of fashion. She spent much of her youth writing poetry and plays and putting on local amateur theatricals. At 18 she had published anonymously 'The Dangers of Coquetry'.