Showing results by narrator "David Shaw-Parker" in All Categories

Arnold Bennett was born in 1867 in Hanley one of the six towns that formed the Potteries that later joined together to become Stoke on Trent; the area in which most of his works are located. For a short time he worked for his solicitor father before realising that to advance his life he would need to become his own man. At the turn of the century he turned full time to writing and shortly thereafter in 1903 he moved to Paris and in 1908 published to great acclaim The Old Wives Tale. With this his reputation was set. Clayhanger and The Old Wives Tale are perhaps his most lauded novels.

James Hain Friswell was born in 1825. He was an English essayist and novelist. He was a frequent contributor to many of the leading periodicals of the day. Whilst his essays and short stories were highly praised his novels and poetry were treated with disdain. He died at Bexley Heath, Kent in 1878, aged 52.

Mayer André Marcel Schwob was born in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, France on 23rd August 1867 into a cultivated Jewish family. As a child he devoured the works of Poe and Stevenson in French and then again in English. His attachment to the bizarre and dark was already forming. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1888 he became a professional journalist and worked for the Phare de la Loire, the Événement and L'Écho de Paris. The 1890’s marked his establishment as a brilliant writer with the publication of six short story collections.

Love. Perhaps the one word solution for everything. An emotion, a state of mind that we strive for, search for. A wondrous force that binds, inspires, and a force that can spin out of control; unbalanced and fragile. Love reflects, changes and embraces us all. In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country.

In this volume your flesh may creep and crawl a little bit as our classic authors delve into the world of vampires. Some stories you may be familiar with but for most these will be new and unsettling experiences.

In this series we listen to short stories that are NOT by perhaps the most well-known author of this type. But the many other rich talents in the volume may have treated the subject matter a little differently, or were perhaps just overlooked in the stampede to applaud the winner, but these authors are of equal merit.

In modern society writing a letter, on paper, is almost unheard of. We all scribble notes and reminders but very rarely compose our thoughts in lengthy prose for another person to read. In this volume our talented authors bring us a plethora of narratives that centre themselves on how vital a few lines are to characters navigating through the twists and turns of a story.

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 whose time has now come again.

Each and every one of us has attempted the feat—to express our feelings on love is one of the joys, or heartaches, of life. In this volume 10 poets add their immortal words on love. Some are tender, some are strident, some beguile with unknown words and play but always, always in tones of love. Genius in every name.

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.

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. The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own. It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity.

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.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They 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 the vast Empire of the Russians literature was a way to exchange ideas, values and cultures. Yet each author, each story, each character is an individual example of a journey that, story by story, has transformed the glimmering arc of its literature.

The name H H Munro is obscured beneath the literary mantle of his nom de plume; Saki. A writer of his times, the stories perfectly portray society’s whims and tastes in a delicate yet at times, barbed humour. A divine wit who conjured words into quite extraordinary works. Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.