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First written in 1902, this is one of Edith Nesbit's best loved children's stories. It all begins when a group of five children – Robert, Anthea, Cyril, Jane, and their baby brother, the Lamb - move from London to the countryside of Kent. While playing in a gravel pit, they discover a rather grumpy, ugly and occasionally malevolent sand-fairy known as the Psammead who is compelled to grant one wish of theirs per day. The effects of each wish last until sundown. All the wishes granted to the children go hilariously wrong.

One of the hobbies of Charles Lindley Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax, was the collection of gruesome tales of the supernatural. These stories were told to him by friends, acquaintances and sent to him by strangers, and he duly recorded them in a book over the course of his long life - he lived to be 94. This is the complete collection in one volume.

A delightful and comprehensive collection of all the best known traditional children's rhymes. Click on the link below to find out the story listing.

A comprehensive and varied collection of the best vampire stories from the Victorian era by the greatest Gothic writers of the time. Includes: 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant; 'Mrs. Amworth' by E. F. Benson; 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats; 'Dracula's Guest' by Bram Stoker; 'The Bride of Corinth' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; 'Will' by Vincent O'Sullivan; 'Ken's Mystery' by Julian Hawthorne.

Twilight in Italy describes Lawrence’s time as an educated working-class Englishman living among the Italian working men and women in the region around Lake Garda, from the Austrian Alps to the North, to Switzerland and finally Como and Milan. He captures the psyche of Italian peasants without ever romanticising or patronising them.

The much loved chronicler and observer of all that is unusual, John Timbs describes a selection of the oddest sights and anecdotes of the 18th and 19th centuries.

When Frank Casillis, an eccentric independently wealthy vagabond, finds himself near an old friend's pavilion on a remote part of the Scottish coast, he discovers some mysterious nocturnal goings-on. The house is being visited under cover of darkness ... strange figures land on the coast ... and then he is himself the victim of a savage knife attack. Robert Louis Stevenson is the master of the action adventure. The Pavilion on the Links is a classic of the genre - a secret plot, a mysterious and beautiful girl, a villain, mortal danger ... all in a wild and windswept setting. Splendid!

A gripping collection of weird and fantastical stories of supernatural and unbelievable happenings. "Pomegranate Seed" by Edith Wharton; "The Tiger" by Hugh Walpole; "When I Was Dead" by Vincent O'Sullivan; "The Fire" by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne; "Satan's Circus" by Eleanor Smith; "The Coffin Merchant" by Richard Middleton; and more tall stories....

The short story is considered to be one of the most challenging genres because of the need for compact plotlines and the ability to conjure up atmosphere and character in a few sentences and to engage the reader instantly. This collection presents 66 of the greatest examples of the genre - many of them well known, some hidden literary treasures, all of them exquisite examples of the short story at its finest.

A delightful anthology of great works by some of Europe's greatest short story writers....

A fabulous anthology of some of the finest stories ever written.

A glorious collection of some of the finest British short stories ever written. The Dog – Arnold Bennet, Not On The Passenger List – Barry Pain, The Old Man’s Tale About The Queer Client – Charles Dickens, The Half Brothers – Elizabeth Gaskell, The Veiled Portrait – James McGovan, Markheim – Robert Louis Stevenson, The Bottle Imp – Robert Louis Stevenson, The Adventures Of The Kind Mr. Smith – William J. Locke, The Man Of Mystery – Barry Pain, The Brazilian Cat – Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle.

First published in 1900, The Book Of Dragons is one of Edith Nesbit's best loved and most inventive children’s books. Her heroes and heroines are children faced unexpectedly with real live dragons, which are fiery, fierce, ravenous, irritating, grumpy, furry and even gifted cooks! They appear from caves, from the pages of a magical book, at the North Pole or from mysterious dungeons where nobody dares enter.

When Mr. Cornelius Appin announces that he has succeeded in teaching the cat, Tobermory, to speak, nobody in the house party believes him. But when Tobermory makes his entrance and begins to reveal the kind of personal secrets only a cat can know about the assembled company, chaos breaks out. Tobermory must be destroyed at all costs. Hector Hugh Munro at his most masterful!

'The Library Window' is a ghost story. A young girl, visiting her aunt in Scotland, finds herself increasingly intrigued by a mysterious window in the house opposite her own favourite window, where she sits to read. There seems to be a local mystery about the window, including a dispute about whether there is even a window there at all. Increasingly this doubt seems odd to the girl as the days go by, as she can see into the room opposite and make out furniture and objects there. Then one day she sees someone in that room....

A spine-chilling collection of creepy, unsettling and unnerving stories. 'If You See Her Face' by B. M. Croker. 'The Ghost at the Blue Dragon' by William J. Wintle. 'The Shadows' by Henry S. Whitehead. 'The Grey Cat' by Barry Pain. 'The Yellow Globe' by Alexander W. Drake. 'The Devil of the Marsh' by H. B. Marriott-Watson. 'The Spectre Spiders' by William J. Wintle. 'The Curious Vehicle' by Alexander W. Drake. 'Number Ninety' by B. M. Croker. 'The Black Cat' by William J. Wintle. 'The Permanent Stiletto' by W. C. Morrow. 'Passing of a God' by Henry S. Whitehead. 'The Chamber of Doom' by William J. Wintle. 'The White Cat' by Hugh Walpole. 'The Loosened Cord' by Alexander W. Drake. 'Mrs. Brassington-Claypott's Children's Party' by F. Anstey. 'The Inmate of the Dungeon' by W. C. Morrow. 'The Red Rosary' by William J. Wintle. 'Caveat Emptor' by F. Anstey. 'The Former Passengers' by B. M. Croker...and over 20 more unsettling tales.

'The Two Frogs' is the story of two amphibians who live in different cities in Japan. Each desires to see the world, so each sets out on a journey towards the other's home city. When they meet at the top of a mountain, the two frogs make friends and devise a plan to work out whether their journey is worthwhile - with unintended consequences.

A terrifying collection of classic werewolf stories, ranging from ancient legends to Victorian and Edwardian adaptations on the theme. •Gabriel-Ernest by Saki •The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant •The Werewolf by Eugene Field •The Other Side by Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock •The Werewolves by Henry Beaugrand •Jean Grenier the French Werewolf by Sabine Baring-Gould •The Man-Wolf by Leitch Ritchie •The She-Wolf by Saki •The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling

1. "The Mysterious Card" by Cleveland Moffett 2. "The Card Unveiled" by Cleveland Moffett 3. "The Problem of the Five Marks" by Melville Davisson Post 4. "A Terribly Strange Bed" by Wilkie Collins 5. "The Gold Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe 6. "Who Killed Charlie Winpole" by Ernest Bramah 7. "The Comedy at Fountain Cottage" by Ernest Bramah 8. "The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles" by William Le Queux 9. "The Hair" by A. J. Alan 10. "The Haunted Dolls’ House" by M. R. James, and many more....

When the retiring young bank clerk Smith ducks into the British Museum one day to avoid the rain, he finds himself confronted with the bust of an Egyptian lady so beautiful that he becomes infatuated with her. His obsession leads him to read extensively on the subject of Egyptology, learn to read hieroglyphics, and gradually become an established Egyptologist. Every winter he travels to Egypt and undertakes archeological work. Then, in the third year, he makes an astounding discovery which changes the course of his life forever.