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William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in late April 1565 and baptised there on 26th April. He was one of eight children. Little is known about his life but what is evident is the enormous contribution he has made to world literature. His writing was progressive, magnificent in scope and breathtaking in execution. His plays and sonnets helped enable the English language to speak with a voice unmatched by any other. William Shakespeare died on April 23rd 1616, survived by his wife and two daughters. He was buried two days after his death in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church. The epitaph on the slab which covers his grave includes the following passage, Good friend, for Jesus’s sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed me the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones. Here we publish his comedy from 1595 ''A Midsummer Night''s Dream''.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in Campden hill, Kensington on May 29th 1874. Originally after attending St Pauls School he went to Slade to learn the illustrators art and literature. In 1896 he joined a small London publisher and began his journalistic career as a freelance art and literary critic. In 1901 he married Frances Blogg, to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. Thereafter he obtained weekly columns in the Daily News and The Illustrated London News. For many he is known as a very fine novelist and the creator of the Father Brown Detective stories which were much influenced by his own beliefs. A large man – 6’ 42 and 21st in weight he was apt to be forgetful in that delightful way that the British sometimes are – a telegram home to his wife saying he was in one place but where should he actually be. But he was prolific in many other areas; he wrote plays, essays, loved to debate and wrote hundreds of poems. This volume is the classic ''What''s Wrong With The World''. Chesterton died of congestive heart failure on 14th June 1936 and is buried in Beaconsfield just outside of London.

Charlotte King was born in either 1771 or 1772 to John King (himself born as Jacob Rey), a moneylender and radical writer. Her father divorced her mother, Sara, under Jewish law in 1784 and set up home with the dowager countess of Lanesborough.

Little is known of Charlotte’s early decades.

Charlotte met and began to live with Nicholas Byrne, a widower, in the early 1800’s. Byrne was an editor and eventual partner of London''s The Morning Post. The poetry editor there was the esteemed poet and actress Mary Robinson, a great influence on the young Charlotte who contributed poems under her pseudonym of Rosa Matilda.

Charlotte first published her poetry volume ‘Hours of Solitude’ in 1805 as well as her first novel ‘Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer’. In 1806 she caused controversy with her the publication of her novel Zofloya; or, The Moor. With its racial, religious and difficult subject matter the controversy is unsurprising.

Between 1806-1809 she gave birth to three children fathered by Byrne. They would eventually marry on July 1st 1815.

In her novels Charlotte abandoned the female as a soft and gentle creature and instead created characters who were fully-formed, aggressive and often physically violent able to demonstrate powerful sexual desires and ambition.

As well as her four major novels she was also a distinguished poet later writing a well-regarded tribute to George IV in 1822.

In the literary world, Charlotte Dacre, as she became known, has been an obscure and forgotten figure but her works, with their feminist streak, are becoming ever more popular.

Charlotte Dacre died on 7th November 1825.

Publius Ovidius Naso but better known to us as simply Ovid was born on 20th March 43 BC in Sulmo (modern day Sulmona) in Italy.

He was educated in rhetoric in Rome in preparation for the practice of Law. Accounts of his character say that he was emotional and not able to stay within the argumentative boundaries of rhetoric disclipine. After the early death of his brother, Ovid ceased his law studies and travelled to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. He held a number of minor public posts but, around 29-25 BC began to pursue poetry, a decision that brought with it his father’s disapproval.

He married three times and divorced twice by the time he was thirty years old. He fathered a daughter, who eventually bore him grandchildren. His last wife was connected to the influential gens Fabia (an ancient Roman patrician family) and would help him during his later exile.

The first decades of Ovid''s literary career were mostly spent writing poetry with erotic themes. The chronology of these early works cannot, however, be relied upon.

His earliest extant work is thought to be the ‘Heroides’, letters of mythological heroines to absent lovers, which is believed to have been published in 19 BC.

The first five-book collection of the ‘Amores’, erotic poems addressed to a lover, Corinna, is believed to have been published in 16–15 BC. The surviving three book version appears to have been published c. 8–3 BC.

Between these two editions of the ‘Amores’ his tragedy ‘Medea’, which was much admired in antiquity but is no longer extant, was performed.

Ovid buoyed by his glowing reputation now increased the tempo of his writing. ‘Medicamina Faciei’, was followed by the ‘Ars Amatoria, the Art of Love’ and immediately followed by ‘Remedia Amoris’. This body of elegiac, erotic poetry saw Ovid cited as the equal of the Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius.

By AD 8, he had completed his most ambitious work, the ‘Metamorphoses’, a 15-book hexameter epic poem. It catalogued Greek and Roman mythology, from the emergence of the universe to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar.

Concurrent with this, he worked on the ‘Fasti’, planned as 12-books but only 6 volumes (January to June were completed) in elegiac couplets on the calendar of Roman festivals and astronomy were completed. The remaining six books were interrupted by Ovid''s sentence to exile.

In AD 8, Ovid was banished to Tomis, on the Black Sea, by the Emperor Augustus. This event shadowed his life and shaped his remaining poetic output. Ovid wrote that his exile was for carmen et error – "a poem and a mistake", claiming his crime was worse than murder, more harmful than poetry.

Ovid was also a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists.

His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology.

In exile, Ovid wrote ‘Tristia’ and ‘Epistulae ex Ponto’, pointedly focused on his sadness and desolation. He was far from Rome and his beloved third wife.

The five books of the elegiac Tristia, a series of poems expressing the poet''s despair in exile and advocating his return to Rome, are dated to AD 9–12.

‘The Ibis’, an elegiac curse poem attacking an adversary at home is also dated to this period. ‘The Epistulae ex Ponto’, a series of letters to friends in Rome asking them to effect his return, are thought to be his last compositions.

Ovid died at Tomis in AD 17 or 18. It is thought that the Fasti, which he spent time revising, were published posthumously.

Frederic Manning was born on 22nd July 1882 in Sydney, Australia, one of eight children to local politician Sir William Patrick Manning. The family were Roman Catholics of Irish origin.

Manning was a poorly child and thus schooled extensively at home. As a teenager he became friends with the Reverend Arthur Galton, who was secretary to the Governor of New South Wales. In 1898 Galton returned to England and Manning went with him. Manning returned to Australia in 1900 before settling permanently in England in 1903.

Manning moved in with Galton, now the vicar at Edenham, a village in Lincolnshire. He devoted his time to studying the classics and philosophy, under Galton.

In 1907 he published his first book, ‘The Vigil of Brunhild’, a monologue written in verse. ‘Scenes and Portraits’ followed in 1909, a discussion of religious topics written as a series of debates by historical figures. With the publication of ‘Poems’ in 1910 his reputation as an up-and-coming writer was gathering an audience.

His poor health continued to trouble him. Despite asthma he continued to smoke. To remedy his loneliness, he frequented the local public houses. His shyness was evident.

In the years prior to World War I, he began to move in London artistic circles, befriending the influential Max Beerbohm and William Rothenstein.

When war broke out, Manning was keen to enlist but his ill-health meant he was rejected as unfit several times. Finally, he was accepted and enrolled in the King''s Shropshire Light Infantry as a private with service number 19022. In France in 1916, Manning saw action with the 7th Battalion at the Battle of the Somme. He was promoted to lance-corporal and experienced the horrors of life in the trenches.

Manning was posted to Ireland in May 1917 as a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Regiment. The life of an officer did not agree with him; he drank excessively causing friction with his superiors. His inebriation was put down to neurasthenia. He resigned his commission on 28th February 1918.

In 1917 he published a poetry collection of poems, ‘Ediola’. He contributed to periodicals such as ‘The Monthly Chapbook’, edited by Harold Monro and T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Criterion’.

However, poetry did not pay the bills and in 1923 Manning took a commission to write ‘The Life of Sir William White’, Director of Naval Construction, and built up of the Navy at the end of the 19th century.

In 1921 Galton died in 1921, which left Manning lacking a focused and directing influence in his life.

As the 1920s progressed the artistic community was increasingly looking back at the war. His publisher urged him to use his talents and wartime experiences to write a novel. The result was ‘The Middle Parts of Fortune’, published as written by ‘Private 19022’ in a numbered limited edition of 520 copies in 1929.

Many fellow authors acclaimed the work including Arnold Bennett, Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound. It allowed Manning to live out his life basking in the afterglow of what is agreed to be one of the very finest novels on the experiences of warfare.

Frederic Manning never married. He seemed to shun intimacy. His long-time host Galton and the hostesses of the literary salons which he visited should be seen as ‘parent-substitute’ figures.

Frederic Manning died of respiratory diseases at a Hampstead nursing home on 22nd February 1935 at the age of 52.

He was buried at Kensal Green cemetery.

Aleksandr Kuprin was born in Narovchat, Penza in Russia on 7th September 1870.

At 3 his Father died and 3 years later he and mother moved into the Widows'' Home in Kudrino, Moscow. His initial education at the Razumovsky boarding school was to cause him many childhood grievances, but he was popular amongst his peers and already a fine storyteller.

In 1880 Kuprin enrolled at the Second Moscow Military High School and his interest in literature began in earnest along with the writing of several poems and some translations of foreign verse. In autumn, 1888 he entered the Alexander Military Academy in Moscow and graduated two years later as a sub-lieutenant and was posted to the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment for the next four years.

In 1889 he published his debut short story ‘The Last Debut’, based on the real life incident of the suicide by poisoning on stage of the singer Yevlalya Kadmina in 1881. Three years later came ‘Psyche’.

He continued writing and in 1894 resigned from the Army with the publication of ‘The Enquiry’. The appearance of this story written and signed by an officer made further time in the military difficult.

On a five-year-long trip through the South-West of the country he took up many jobs; dental care, land surveying, acting, circus performer, psalm singer, doctor, hunter, fisherman, all of these varied experiences were later used in his fiction.

In summer 1894 Kuprin arrived in Kiev and began work for local newspapers Kievskoe Slovo, Zhizn i Iskusstvo, and later Kievlianin. He kept up his other contributions for newspapers further afield.

Eight of his sketches were printed in book form in March 1896. His second collection ‘Miniatures’, the following year, earned high praise from a certain Leo Tolstoy.

In 1896 Moloch, Kuprin''s first major work was published, a critique of the rapidly expanding Russian capitalism and a reflection of the growing social unrest in the country.

By 1901 his reputation had earned him an invitation to St Petersburg to work on a popular monthly magazine. Here he met and befriended Anton Chekhov and Ivan Bunin and joined a literary society of the emerging young realist writers including Gorky, Bunin, and Leonid Andreyev.

Marriage came in February 1902 to the daughter of the editor of Mir Bozhy raising gossip of nepotism. His long hours and responsibilities working for the monthly left him little time for his own writing.

In 1904 Kuprin started working on ‘The Duel’. This novel, first conceived during his army years, and commenting on the "horror and tedium of army life," was published in May 1905. For him it was cathartic for literature, a sensation.

After the 1905 Revolution Kuprin became openly critical of the regime and put under secret police surveillance. Another brush with the law brought him a fine and ten days'' house arrest.

From 1905 he put himself forward as an elector to the first State Duma for the city of Petersburg. He also made several quite daring adventures; an air balloon flight with the renowned sportsman Sergey Utochkin, then to the Black Sea depths as a diver and accompanied the airman Ivan Zaikin on several airplane trips.

In 1907 he divorced his wife and married Yelizaveta Geinrikh, who, in 1908, gave birth to their daughter Ksenia.

In October 1909 Kuprin was awarded the prestigious Pushkin Prize, jointly with Bunin.

In 1908 Kuprin started working on ‘The Pit’, his most ambitious and controversial novel. This study of prostitution appeared in parts in 1909, 1914, and the third in 1915. Part I provoked controversy but Parts II and III only indifference and the beginning of a creative decline.

As World War I broke out, Kuprin opened a military hospital in his Gatchina home, then visited towns on the Western front. As a reserve officer, he was called up in November 1914 to command an infantry company in Finland till May 1915, then discharged on grounds of ill health.

The October Revolution of 1918 saw his attitude to the new regime remain ambivalent. He admired Lenin as "an honest and courageous man," and that "Bolshevism constitutes a great, pure, disinterested doctrine that is inevitable for mankind" but also argued that the Bolsheviks threatened Russian culture and had brought widespread suffering to the peasants.

Kuprin drew up elaborate plans for Zemlia, a paper designed for the peasantry and to assist the government in the radical transformation of rural life along lines not conflicting with the principles of communism. Although approved by Lenin the project never materialised.

As Civil War raged Kuprin took his family to Finland. After six months in Helsinki they sailed for France, arriving in Paris in July 1920.

The next seventeen years saw the continued decline of his talents and his succumbing to alcoholism. Grieved at his distance from Russia, he became lonely and withdrawn. The family''s poverty increased his malaise. By 1930 poverty and debt were crushing him. His literary fees were meager, his heavy drinking continued, his sight began to deteriorate, and now his handwriting became impaired. His wife''s attempts to establish a book-binding shop and a library for émigrés were financial disasters.

He believed that only a return to the Soviet Union could solve his material and psychological difficulties. In May 1937, waved off by their daughter, the Kuprin’s left for Moscow. On arrival they were installed in the Metropole Hotel and then to a dacha owned by the Soviet Union of Writers at Golitsyno, outside Moscow, where Kuprin received medical attention and rested till the winter when they moved to a Leningrad apartment.

His return saw his work published in the Soviet Union, but he wrote almost nothing new after that. In January 1938 Kuprin''s health deteriorated and by July the end was in sight. Already suffering from a kidney disorder and sclerosis, he had now developed cancer of the oesophagus.

Aleksandr Kuprin died on 25th August 1938.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

In this decade Europe is recovering from the Great War yet already the poisonous seeds for the next, even greater calamity, are taking root. Our literary leviathans bring tales of pain and heartache, sorrow and humanity into every narrative. Genius has many names.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born on 9th November 1818 in Oryol, Russia to parents from the nobility. He and his two brothers were raised by their mother on the family estate. Surrounded by foreign governesses he became fluent in French, German, and English. Their father spent little time with them and this undoubtedly had an effect on his sons. When he was nine the family moved to Moscow to give their children a better education.

Turgenev studied for a year at the University of Moscow and then at the University of St Petersburg to study Classics, Russian literature, and philology. During that time his father died from kidney stone disease. In 1838 Turgenev studied philosophy and history at the University of Berlin for 3 years before returning to St Petersburg for his master''s.

He started his career with the Russian Civil Service and it was only in 1852, after several earlier publications, that he made his name with his short story collection, ‘A Sportsman''s Sketches’, based on his observations of peasant life and nature.

That same year he wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol: "Gogol is dead!... What Russian heart is not shaken by those three words?... He is gone, that man whom we now have the right (the bitter right, given to us by death) to call great." The St Petersburg censor banned publication but the Moscow censor allowed it. He was dismissed but Turgenev was held responsible and imprisoned for a month, and then exiled to his country estate.

Along with many other intellectuals Turgenev left Russia and settled in Paris in 1854. During this period he wrote his finest stories and four novels.

Alexander II ascended the Russian throne in 1855, and the political climate relaxed. Turgenev returned home.

‘Fathers and Sons’, Turgenev''s most famous and enduring novel, appeared in 1862. Its leading character is considered the first ‘Bolshevik’ in Russian literature. But the hostile reaction prompted Turgenev''s decision to again leave Russia.

His health declined during his later years. In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor was removed but by then it had metastasized in his upper spinal cord, causing him intense pain in his final few months of life.

Ivan Turgenev died on 3rd September 1883 of a spinal abscess, a complication of the metastatic liposarcoma, in his house near Paris. He was buried in St Petersburg.

Katherine Merritte Yates was an American author who also wrote such works as Prairie Artist: Homesteading under the pseudonym E.E Stevens. In ‘By The Roadside’ Marjorie and her Dream have a beautiful and enchanting adventure. Whilst her work and style is from a bygone era it has a charm that easily captures your imagination. It easy to see why her works were so widely read not so long ago. We hope in reading this you might want to read others too. Her works also include; What the Pine Tree Heard, On the Way There, The Grey Story Book, Through the Woods, At the Door, By the Wayside, Cheery and the Chum, Along the Trail, A Tale from Rainbow Land, Up the Sunbeams, On the Hill-Top, In the Valley, Katy and Copy-Cat and Feather Cloak (1936) which we hope to make available to you soon.

James John Davies was born in Tredegar, Wales, before emigrating with his parents to the United States in 1881 at the age of eight. Apprenticed as a puddler''s assistant in a steel mill thereby acquiring his nickname. After stints as City Clerk in Elwood, Indiana, and Recorder of Madison County, Indiana he served as US Secretary of Labor from 1921 to 1930 under Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. During his tenure, he focused on immigration (then a Labor Dept function), and established the United States Border Patrol. At the urging of the iron and steel workers union, he successfully urged U.S. Steel to abandon the 12-hour workday. He was later elected from Pennsylvania to the US Senate. In 1922 he published his autobiography, The Iron Puddler.

This is the seventh book in the series written by L Frank Baum. It was first published on July 1st , 1913 and includes many characters including the Woozy, Ojo "the Unlucky", Unc Nunkie, Dr. Pipt, and of course Scraps – the patchwork girl herself. This book was originally never intended to be written but because of Baum’s pressing financial condition needs must and he cleverly managed to open Oz up once again through the magic of wireless telegraphy to continue one of the greatest of all children’s series.

Across the years there have been many great writers of detective fiction. Many spring to mind: Arthur Conan Doyle for example. But few would recognise the the name Grace Isabel Colbron. She''s worth delving into. Born in 1869 Grace Isabel Colbron wrote several detective ''whodunits''. Writing detective novels is an unusual occupation for a woman especially then. However they are delightful, entertaining reads from another era. A Case Collection, features 4 exciting stories and is a perfect place to begin.

The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the stories Charles Dickens wrote about London, A City of Empire and ambition with a dark underside. Dickens is a name that dominates the landscape of English novelists. His works are masterpieces and he is held everywhere in the highest regard. In his fairly short life of 58 years he accomplished an extraordinary number of classic novels, especially in light of his humble and poor beginnings. Here in this collection of stories his hand and mind are everywhere within their short length proving once again that Dickens could master almost any form of writing.

The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the stories Charles Dickens wrote about specific people. Sometimes with just a few details Dickens conjures up memorable characters that set about their journey. Dickens is a name that dominates the landscape of English novelists. His works are masterpieces and he is held everywhere in the highest regard. In his fairly short life of 58 years he accomplished an extraordinary number of classic novels, especially in light of his humble and poor beginnings. Here in this collection of stories his hand and mind are everywhere within their short length proving once again that Dickens could master almost any form of writing.

Owen Wister’s seminal novel The Virginian (1902) is historically the first successful novel that initiated a whole movement of novels set in the American “Wild West.” Such novels have later been known to all as “Westerns” mainly thanks to the popularity of their cinematographic adaptations. In The Virginian, the protagonist is an unnamed young cowboy working in a Wyoming ranch. He displays all the good qualities of a Western hero, being physically strong, morally brave and with a good heart. The beginning of the narrative shows the Virginian demonstrating his dexterity with rope when he easily succeeds in ropeing a pony in front of other cowboys who have been trying to do it in vain before he comes on the scene. Most of the story, which is narrated by the Virginian’s closest friend and companion, tells about the cowboy’s adventures, about his romantic relationship with the beautiful schoolteacher from Maine Molly Wood and particularly about his feud with a vicious thug named Trampas. The story ends happily when good vanquishes evil, the Virginian beats Trampas in a gun battle. He then marries his sweetheart and becomes partner of the Wyoming ranch’s owner.

The Prophet is a book of prose poetry published in 1923 by the renowned Lebanese philosopher and writer Kahlil Gibran who has been a member of a group of Lebanese intellectuals and writers expatriated in the United States. Having been translated from English into most languages of the world and sold by millions of copies, The Prophet is about goodness, humanism and universal spirituality. It displays the influence of great world religious traditions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. The protagonist is the eponymous prophet Almustafa (an Arabic word meaning “the chosen one”) who is pictured in the very first pages of the book as a man of wisdom and experience who is about to leave the city in which he seems to have spent quite a long time. On his way to the ship that is supposed to take him to his homeland, he meets a group of denizens who start to ask him questions about different issues related to life and existence. Thus, the rest of the book is divided into a number of short poetic essays, each focusing on one aspect of life such as love, marriage, work, food, friendship, religion and death.

The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers is a novel published in 1903 that belongs to military fiction or “invasion novels.” It predicts pre-First-World-War threats of German invasion of the British Isles. The pertinence of Childers’s ideas and details, which have been based on his own sailing experience, has made the historical British prime minister Winston Churchill summon him up at the outbreak of the war for advice. The fiction tells about two friends named Carruthers and Davies who go on a sailing trip onboard of their small yacht named Dulcibella to explore the area of the Frisian Islands after suspecting the German army of having some wicked enterprise in the area. Their doubts are eventually confirmed when they discover a German military base getting ready to invade Britain. After some misadventures in the site, the couple manage to flee back to their country to inform the British authorities and help them ward off the German conspiracy. Though fictional, Childers’s book has a great influence on the British public opinion as well as on decision-makers. With other publications by the same author and by other authors influenced by him, the novel raised awareness of the German threat during the period preceding the First World War and of the unpreparedness of the British forces.

How to Live on Twenty Four Hours a Day is a classic of self-improvement by Arnold Bennett published in 1910. Although the book is more than one century old, the practical advice and the inspirational ideas that it provides have become much pertinent to twenty-first-century concerns since today most people find themselves in a fatal combat with time. The volume is divided into a number of chapters, each of which offers a series of tips to be followed in order to get the best of one’s twenty four hours and to “live” rather than just “exist.” What has made modern people feel enslaved to time, according to Bennett, is the way the Industrial Revolution has mechanized their lifestyle. They have become like machines reiterating the same things for years and even decades so that they have lost the taste of life. Bennett gives solutions to these modern problems, solution of how to save time and enjoy it, solutions of how to make use of one’s existence. Literature, the arts, history and philosophy are among the tools that help achieve such a goal. For Bennett, one has to keep on reminding himself that time is often more precious than money.

Anthony Trollope was born in London on 24th April 1815. He is considered a giant of English literature and perhaps his crowning achievement is the series of books known as The Barchester Chronicles. It begins with ‘The Warden''. Trollope''s early schooling was at Harrow and Sunbury. He was often bullied due to the family’s reduced financial means exacerbated by his bad tempered father who seemed to be full of energy but lacking in any follow through to turn it into a regular income. His mother, Frances, moved with three of his younger siblings to the United States in 1827 returning only in 1831 as a successful writer. His father who had travelled with them for only a short time continued to fail. In 1834 Anthony Trollope moved with his family to Bruges in Belgium to escape the debt collectors pursuing his father. With the offer of work for the General Post Office he returned to London later that same year. The next 7 years were by his own account unproductive and miserable. However in 1841 a chance to move to Ireland for the GPO availed itself and he took it. His life began to turn around. His salary went further and his work went well and he became a valuable part of its’ work. In 1842 he met and then became engaged to Rose Heseltine and they later married in 1844. The marriage also stimulated his writing ambitions and within a year he had finished his first novel, “The Macdermots of Ballycloran”. During his long travels around Ireland he now began to write extensively often setting himself a schedule about how many words to write in a day. This discipline ensured a prolific and extensive literary catalogue in the decades to follow. In 1851 he was sent to England to organise rural delivery in part of the country. He travelled extensively for two years. In this period he began to nurture the first of the six Barsetshire novels “The Warden’ which was published to encouraging sales in 1855. Two years later, also in the same series, the famed “Barchester Towers” was published. In 1859 he wanted to contribute short stories to the Cornhill magazine, edited by William Makepeace Thackeray. His novel “Framley Parsonage” was initially printed as a serial in the magazine and proved lucrative and reputation building. Wishing to move his writing career forward he knew he should really be established back in England and preferably London. So in 1861 he sought and was appointed as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of Hertfordshire. That same year he moved to Waltham Cross, about 12 miles from London, where he lived until 1871. In 1868 he resigned from the Post Office in order to run for Parliament (being a public servant he was otherwise ineligible to run) as a Liberal at Beverley in Yorkshire. Unfortunately with vote buying and other corrupt practices prevalent he finished last of 4 candidates despite spending over £400 on the campaign. However it brought new light on to the practice and helped to clean up national politics. Thereafter he focused his attention solely on writing. In 1871 he visited Australia for a year to see his younger son, his ensuing book, though even handed, gave way to resentment on many Australians part which still simmered on a return visit some years later. Shortly before his end he returned again to Ireland to research his last and unfinished novel “The Landleaguers”. In his prolific career he had written 47 novels as well as many short stories and travel books. On December 1882 he died in London and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Anthony Trollope was born in London on 24th April 1815. He is considered a giant of English literature and perhaps his crowning achievement is the series of books known as The Barchester Chronicles. We continue that series with book 2 ''Barchester Towers''. Trollope''s early schooling was at Harrow and Sunbury. He was often bullied due to the family’s reduced financial means exacerbated by his bad tempered father who seemed to be full of energy but lacking in any follow through to turn it into a regular income. His mother, Frances, moved with three of his younger siblings to the United States in 1827 returning only in 1831 as a successful writer. His father who had travelled with them for only a short time continued to fail. In 1834 Anthony Trollope moved with his family to Bruges in Belgium to escape the debt collectors pursuing his father. With the offer of work for the General Post Office he returned to London later that same year. The next 7 years were by his own account unproductive and miserable. However in 1841 a chance to move to Ireland for the GPO availed itself and he took it. His life began to turn around. His salary went further and his work went well and he became a valuable part of its’ work. In 1842 he met and then became engaged to Rose Heseltine and they later married in 1844. The marriage also stimulated his writing ambitions and within a year he had finished his first novel, “The Macdermots of Ballycloran”. During his long travels around Ireland he now began to write extensively often setting himself a schedule about how many words to write in a day. This discipline ensured a prolific and extensive literary catalogue in the decades to follow. In 1851 he was sent to England to organise rural delivery in part of the country. He travelled extensively for two years. In this period he began to nurture the first of the six Barsetshire novels “The Warden’ which was published to encouraging sales in 1855. Two years later, also in the same series, the famed “Barchester Towers” was published. In 1859 he wanted to contribute short stories to the Cornhill magazine, edited by William Makepeace Thackeray. His novel “Framley Parsonage” was initially printed as a serial in the magazine and proved lucrative and reputation building. Wishing to move his writing career forward he knew he should really be established back in England and preferably London. So in 1861 he sought and was appointed as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of Hertfordshire. That same year he moved to Waltham Cross, about 12 miles from London, where he lived until 1871. In 1868 he resigned from the Post Office in order to run for Parliament (being a public servant he was otherwise ineligible to run) as a Liberal at Beverley in Yorkshire. Unfortunately with vote buying and other corrupt practices prevalent he finished last of 4 candidates despite spending over £400 on the campaign. However it brought new light on to the practice and helped to clean up national politics. Thereafter he focused his attention solely on writing. In 1871 he visited Australia for a year to see his younger son, his ensuing book, though even handed, gave way to resentment on many Australians part which still simmered on a return visit some years later. Shortly before his end he returned again to Ireland to research his last and unfinished novel “The Landleaguers”. In his prolific career he had written 47 novels as well as many short stories and travel books. On December 1882 he died in London and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Anthony Trollope was born in London on 24th April 1815. He is considered a giant of English literature and perhaps his crowning achievement is the series of books known as The Barchester Chronicles. We continue that series with book 3 ''Doctor Thorne''. Trollope''s early schooling was at Harrow and Sunbury. He was often bullied due to the family’s reduced financial means exacerbated by his bad tempered father who seemed to be full of energy but lacking in any follow through to turn it into a regular income. His mother, Frances, moved with three of his younger siblings to the United States in 1827 returning only in 1831 as a successful writer. His father who had travelled with them for only a short time continued to fail. In 1834 Anthony Trollope moved with his family to Bruges in Belgium to escape the debt collectors pursuing his father. With the offer of work for the General Post Office he returned to London later that same year. The next 7 years were by his own account unproductive and miserable. However in 1841 a chance to move to Ireland for the GPO availed itself and he took it. His life began to turn around. His salary went further and his work went well and he became a valuable part of its’ work. In 1842 he met and then became engaged to Rose Heseltine and they later married in 1844. The marriage also stimulated his writing ambitions and within a year he had finished his first novel, “The Macdermots of Ballycloran”. During his long travels around Ireland he now began to write extensively often setting himself a schedule about how many words to write in a day. This discipline ensured a prolific and extensive literary catalogue in the decades to follow. In 1851 he was sent to England to organise rural delivery in part of the country. He travelled extensively for two years. In this period he began to nurture the first of the six Barsetshire novels “The Warden’ which was published to encouraging sales in 1855. Two years later, also in the same series, the famed “Barchester Towers” was published. In 1859 he wanted to contribute short stories to the Cornhill magazine, edited by William Makepeace Thackeray. His novel “Framley Parsonage” was initially printed as a serial in the magazine and proved lucrative and reputation building. Wishing to move his writing career forward he knew he should really be established back in England and preferably London. So in 1861 he sought and was appointed as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of Hertfordshire. That same year he moved to Waltham Cross, about 12 miles from London, where he lived until 1871. In 1868 he resigned from the Post Office in order to run for Parliament (being a public servant he was otherwise ineligible to run) as a Liberal at Beverley in Yorkshire. Unfortunately with vote buying and other corrupt practices prevalent he finished last of 4 candidates despite spending over £400 on the campaign. However it brought new light on to the practice and helped to clean up national politics. Thereafter he focused his attention solely on writing. In 1871 he visited Australia for a year to see his younger son, his ensuing book, though even handed, gave way to resentment on many Australians part which still simmered on a return visit some years later. Shortly before his end he returned again to Ireland to research his last and unfinished novel “The Landleaguers”. In his prolific career he had written 47 novels as well as many short stories and travel books. On December 1882 he died in London and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Anthony Trollope was born in London on 24th April 1815. He is considered a giant of English literature and perhaps his crowning achievement is the series of books known as The Barchester Chronicles. We continue that series with book 5 ''The Small House Of Allington''. Trollope''s early schooling was at Harrow and Sunbury. He was often bullied due to the family’s reduced financial means exacerbated by his bad tempered father who seemed to be full of energy but lacking in any follow through to turn it into a regular income. His mother, Frances, moved with three of his younger siblings to the United States in 1827 returning only in 1831 as a successful writer. His father who had travelled with them for only a short time continued to fail. In 1834 Anthony Trollope moved with his family to Bruges in Belgium to escape the debt collectors pursuing his father. With the offer of work for the General Post Office he returned to London later that same year. The next 7 years were by his own account unproductive and miserable. However in 1841 a chance to move to Ireland for the GPO availed itself and he took it. His life began to turn around. His salary went further and his work went well and he became a valuable part of its’ work. In 1842 he met and then became engaged to Rose Heseltine and they later married in 1844. The marriage also stimulated his writing ambitions and within a year he had finished his first novel, “The Macdermots of Ballycloran”. During his long travels around Ireland he now began to write extensively often setting himself a schedule about how many words to write in a day. This discipline ensured a prolific and extensive literary catalogue in the decades to follow. In 1851 he was sent to England to organise rural delivery in part of the country. He travelled extensively for two years. In this period he began to nurture the first of the six Barsetshire novels “The Warden’ which was published to encouraging sales in 1855. Two years later, also in the same series, the famed “Barchester Towers” was published. In 1859 he wanted to contribute short stories to the Cornhill magazine, edited by William Makepeace Thackeray. His novel “Framley Parsonage” was initially printed as a serial in the magazine and proved lucrative and reputation building. Wishing to move his writing career forward he knew he should really be established back in England and preferably London. So in 1861 he sought and was appointed as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of Hertfordshire. That same year he moved to Waltham Cross, about 12 miles from London, where he lived until 1871. In 1868 he resigned from the Post Office in order to run for Parliament (being a public servant he was otherwise ineligible to run) as a Liberal at Beverley in Yorkshire. Unfortunately with vote buying and other corrupt practices prevalent he finished last of 4 candidates despite spending over £400 on the campaign. However it brought new light on to the practice and helped to clean up national politics. Thereafter he focused his attention solely on writing. In 1871 he visited Australia for a year to see his younger son, his ensuing book, though even handed, gave way to resentment on many Australians part which still simmered on a return visit some years later. Shortly before his end he returned again to Ireland to research his last and unfinished novel “The Landleaguers”. In his prolific career he had written 47 novels as well as many short stories and travel books. On December 1882 he died in London and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Anthony Trollope was born in London on 24th April 1815. He is considered a giant of English literature and perhaps his crowning achievement is the series of books known as The Barchester Chronicles. We continue that series with book 6 ''The Last Chronicle Of Barset''. Trollope''s early schooling was at Harrow and Sunbury. He was often bullied due to the family’s reduced financial means exacerbated by his bad tempered father who seemed to be full of energy but lacking in any follow through to turn it into a regular income. His mother, Frances, moved with three of his younger siblings to the United States in 1827 returning only in 1831 as a successful writer. His father who had travelled with them for only a short time continued to fail. In 1834 Anthony Trollope moved with his family to Bruges in Belgium to escape the debt collectors pursuing his father. With the offer of work for the General Post Office he returned to London later that same year. The next 7 years were by his own account unproductive and miserable. However in 1841 a chance to move to Ireland for the GPO availed itself and he took it. His life began to turn around. His salary went further and his work went well and he became a valuable part of its’ work. In 1842 he met and then became engaged to Rose Heseltine and they later married in 1844. The marriage also stimulated his writing ambitions and within a year he had finished his first novel, “The Macdermots of Ballycloran”. During his long travels around Ireland he now began to write extensively often setting himself a schedule about how many words to write in a day. This discipline ensured a prolific and extensive literary catalogue in the decades to follow. In 1851 he was sent to England to organise rural delivery in part of the country. He travelled extensively for two years. In this period he began to nurture the first of the six Barsetshire novels “The Warden’ which was published to encouraging sales in 1855. Two years later, also in the same series, the famed “Barchester Towers” was published. In 1859 he wanted to contribute short stories to the Cornhill magazine, edited by William Makepeace Thackeray. His novel “Framley Parsonage” was initially printed as a serial in the magazine and proved lucrative and reputation building. Wishing to move his writing career forward he knew he should really be established back in England and preferably London. So in 1861 he sought and was appointed as Surveyor to the Eastern District, comprising Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of Hertfordshire. That same year he moved to Waltham Cross, about 12 miles from London, where he lived until 1871. In 1868 he resigned from the Post Office in order to run for Parliament (being a public servant he was otherwise ineligible to run) as a Liberal at Beverley in Yorkshire. Unfortunately with vote buying and other corrupt practices prevalent he finished last of 4 candidates despite spending over £400 on the campaign. However it brought new light on to the practice and helped to clean up national politics. Thereafter he focused his attention solely on writing. In 1871 he visited Australia for a year to see his younger son, his ensuing book, though even handed, gave way to resentment on many Australians part which still simmered on a return visit some years later. Shortly before his end he returned again to Ireland to research his last and unfinished novel “The Landleaguers”. In his prolific career he had written 47 novels as well as many short stories and travel books. On December 1882 he died in London and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Lord Jim is a novel by Joseph Conrad the author of The Heart of Darkness. Published at the very end of the nineteenth century, Lord Jim follows the life of the eponymous hero, a young British seaman working in the Malays. In the first part of the narrative, which is based on a factual story, Jim is on a ship travelling from a Far-Eastern island to Mecca and boarding hundreds of Muslim pilgrims. When the ship faces very bad weather conditions and starts to founder, Jim and the rest of the British crew leave the ship and sacrifice all the passengers. Later, the Muslim passengers are also saved and Jim is sued for not standing up to his duty. In the second part of the story, downhearted Jim is back to work, yet he has to hide his true identity and reprehensible past. He is then sent to work on a remote island where no one knows him. Jim tries to redeem himself by defending the island’s natives against criminals. He becomes much respected, yet by the end of the narrative, when he fails to protect the people from the attacks of outsiders, he willingly surrenders to death.

DH Lawrence was often at odds with the Establishment and more commonly thought of as a pornographer. Now he is admired as a great literary voice. Women In Love studies the nature of relationships between men and women through four very different characters, each of whom seeks fulfilment in their own way. Gudrun seeks an intellectual equal, while for Ursula, overwhelming love is all that will suffice; Gerald attempts to fill his emotional void with success and physicality, whereas Birkin desires total commitment from both his lover and his friend. Lawrence uses the foursome to form a complex emotional web, voicing his own views through the semi-autobiographical figure of Birkin.

Percy Bysshe Shelley is more widely known as one of the great Romantic Poets. Yet in his short life he was politically active and in writing The Masque of Anarchy in 1819 and basing it on preceding events at the bloody massacre at Peterloo he helps to give voice to alternative notion of non violent resistance. Although not published until after his death it remains a defining poem of its time.

Ulysses is a seminal novel by the Irish writer James Joyce that has had a great impact on the modernist movement. Indeed, for many critics, the novel has established most of the conventions of modern fiction and has become one of its fundamental references. After being serialized in magazines, Ulysses has first been collected and published in 1922. The narrative, which is set in the Irish capital Dublin and divided into 18 episodes, follows the two principal characters of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. Different issues are discussed and reflected upon ranging from Irish history and nationalism to anti-Semitism, art, literature, sexual desire, marital infidelity, death, religion and theology. In each episode, Joyce draws parallels between his own story and Homer’s classic epic poem The Odyssey, often borrowing the names of its heroes and places and invoking its main themes. Joyce’s novel is marked by experimentation, the extensive use of symbolism, figures of speech, allusive language, metaphorical language and parody. It is also in Ulysses that Joyce develops his now famous narratorial technique known as “the stream of consciousness” where the character’s thoughts are naturally presented without any attempt at interrupting them or rearranging them.

The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the short stories of Saki. Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab Burma on the 18th December 1870. With the death of his mother, Hector was sent to England to live with his Grandmother and Aunts and endured a strict family upbringing. Educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth, Devon and at Bedford School it was only on a few occasions that he was able to travel with his father to fashionable European spas and tourist resorts. In 1893, Hector followed his father into the Indian Imperial Police, where he was posted to Burma. Two years later, having contracted malaria, he resigned and returned to England. In England he started his career as a journalist, writing for the newspapers; the Westminster Gazette, Daily Express, Bystander, Morning Post, and Outlook. In 1900, Munro''s first book, an historical study, appeared: The Rise of the Russian Empire. From 1902 to 1908, Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Warsaw, Russia and Paris; he then gave that up and settled in London. His postings gave him a large amount of inspiration for his ‘Reginald’ stories as well as his perhaps more famous stories of the macabre and unusual. His wit, general mischievousness and delight in turning things on their head brought him great acclaim. In November 1916, when sheltering in a shell crater near Beaumont-Hamel, France, he was killed by a German sniper. His alleged last words "Put that bloody cigarette out!". He was 45. Many of these stories are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Word Of Mouth. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee. An Audiobook version is available at Amazon, Audible, Itunes and all other major digital retailers.

The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the short stories of Saki. Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab Burma on the 18th December 1870. With the death of his mother, Hector was sent to England to live with his Grandmother and Aunts and endured a strict family upbringing. Educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth, Devon and at Bedford School it was only on a few occasions that he was able to travel with his father to fashionable European spas and tourist resorts. In 1893, Hector followed his father into the Indian Imperial Police, where he was posted to Burma. Two years later, having contracted malaria, he resigned and returned to England. In England he started his career as a journalist, writing for the newspapers; the Westminster Gazette, Daily Express, Bystander, Morning Post, and Outlook. In 1900, Munro''s first book, an historical study, appeared: The Rise of the Russian Empire. From 1902 to 1908, Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Warsaw, Russia and Paris; he then gave that up and settled in London. His postings gave him a large amount of inspiration for his ‘Reginald’ stories as well as his perhaps more famous stories of the macabre and unusual. His wit, general mischievousness and delight in turning things on their head brought him great acclaim. In November 1916, when sheltering in a shell crater near Beaumont-Hamel, France, he was killed by a German sniper. His alleged last words "Put that bloody cigarette out!". He was 45. Many of these stories are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Word Of Mouth. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee. An Audiobook version is available at Amazon, Audible, Itunes and all other major digital retailers.