検索キーワード： ナレーター "Richard Mitchley" すべてのカテゴリー

Aleksander Głowacki, who wrote under the nom de plume Boleslaw Prus, was born on 20th August 1847 at Hrubieszów in the Kingdom of Poland, at that time, controlled by the Russian Empire. It seems he had doubts as to the scale of his talents and early on adopted the name ‘Boleslaw Prus’, for both his journalistic and literary offerings. His work as a short-story writer met with much acclaim. He wrote several dozen of them, originally published in newspapers and ranging in length from micro-story to novella. His keen observation of everyday life and sense of humor are evident in them.

Algernon Blackwood was born on 14th March 1869 in Shooter’s Hill, South East London, to a religious middle-class family. His mother was a widowed Duchess and his father was a Post Office administrator. Blackwood was interested in the paranormal and the supernatural at an early age, and had a thirst for anything on Buddhism, other Oriental philosophies, mysticism and occultism. In his writings the weaving of the supernatural into his various works, from ghost stories and children’s stories to plays and long novels is clearly seen.

Christmas may come but once a year but human emotions, the driving force of our characters, are with us every day. Yet, somehow these same emotions when they happen at Christmas seem amplified; we seem more tender to their touch, their words. In this volume we take the verse and poems of our classic poets and put them alongside our short story masters to reveal a Christmas that everyone remembers and that everyone wants to be part of.

Do men need poems? Is the gender of brawn and ‘can-do’ really a candidate for honeyed verse? Obviously yes. Through the centuries men seem to dominate the writing of poetry. From books of epics to quatrains of love poetry it seemed to be a man’s world. His domain. A volume purely for men, to show other facets of their personalities and characters seems to be an obvious choice. One verse fits all is, in fact, far removed from the truth. Men needs words. They need support, understanding as well as goals, ambition and structure. They need purpose, desire; the need to love and be loved.

During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate. This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance. Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers. Amongst the very many was ‘The Yellow Book’.

Love whether fleeting or of the ages, expressed with a look, a touch, or a thought is wanted by us all. Our classic poets did not surrender to the logic of the group or seek advice from others quick to blame but slow to embrace. Their legacy remains because it is true, because in that look, that touch, that thought, that display of words the heart remembers us and treasures us. Here are words and verse of love. For your ears, your loved one’s ears and hearts everywhere.

Between then and now poets have written verse, both serious and humorous, in attempts to keep a poetic track both of feelings and as a tribute to our four-legged friends and their adventures.

Whilst writer Charles Dickens needs no introduction, his Haunted House anthology might, not least because in his role as editor he introduces a formidable array of known and lesser-known literary talents.

Henry James was born 15th April 1843 in New York City. His youth was spent travelling with his family receiving what was an "extraordinarily haphazard and promiscuous" education as they journeyed through London, Paris, Geneva, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Newport, Rhode Island, according to the father's current interests and publishing ventures. James studied primarily with tutors and only briefly attended schools. Undoubtedly the quality of his writing has ensured his name is enshrined in the American literary tradition.

The character of Peter Pan first appeared in The Little White Bird in 1902. This most famous and enduring of his works, Peter Pan; or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, had its first stage performance on December 27, 1904. Peter Pan would overshadow all his other works, but his short stories cannot be overlooked. Indeed, from today’s vantage point, they are excellent gems of social manners, of class, and of the way characters, sometimes in the most mundane of circumstances, react in the most surprising of ways.

In the Scottish canon, to be placed alongside Robert Burns is high praise indeed, but it’s a rightful place for one of Scotland’s finest novelists. Born in 1850, he managed to cram much into his 44 years, traveling widely to France, the United States, Samoa and the South Seas. Of course, he is widely feted for his classics: Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde, Treasure Island, and poetry volumes such as A Child’s Garden of Verses.

Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1907. Born in Bombay on December 30, 1865, both he and his sister were sent back to England when he was five, as was the custom of the British ruling elite in India. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple they boarded with in Portsmouth had one useful effect that Kipling himself suggested; it gave him an early impetus for a literary life.

Born in 1857 in Poland, Joseph Conrad became a British citizen just before he turned 30. In the intervening years he lost both parents; as an orphan aged 11, he was therefore raised by an uncle, who at 16 let the boy go to Marseille to work on merchant ships, where the colourful life of the sea was further enhanced by stints gun running and intriguingly political conspiracy. At age 36, his life turned from one of ships to one of literary pursuit. In doing so, Conrad brought to English Literature a further layer of style and a deeper examination of the human psyche in a wealth of work.

Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and 20th century, and awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1907. Born in Bombay on 30 December 1865, as was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple who they boarded with in Portsmouth, Kipling himself suggested, contributed to the onset of his literary life

Life has the capacity of great moments and attainment, of lives well lived, fulfilling for ourselves and for those we touch. But for others life is arduous. There is no spark to ignite the curiosity, to explore and achieve a stability and a growth to their lives. Indeed their lives, in their own eyes, become almost meaningless, their sense of themselves subsumed under a myriad of problems, whether real or imagined. Seismic events in a life might crush them; the loss of a loved one for instance. Coping is difficult, support hard to find and isolation abounds.

Mental illness though can still carry a stigma. A case of ‘you’re not trying hard enough’, ‘or knuckling down and getting on with it’. But in more recent decades mental issues have come to be recognised as an illness, a disease rather than an affliction. We all remember horror stories of lobotomy’s and electric shock being used to ‘cure’ what society viewed as anti-social behaviour but illness, mental or physical is very real. Depression, schizophrenia, breakdown, psychosis are alarming events to have or to witness.

H. P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was a prodigious but sickly youth. At 14, he contemplated suicide when his grandfather died, leaving him and his mother almost penniless. He began to write poetry, and a series of literary spats in a newspaper brought him attention and the beginnings of a career.