Phil Benson
Short stories (Early works 1837-1852)
A collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's early short stories. Following the publication of Mary Barton in 1848, Gaskell published many of her sho…
Doxie Dent
Following the short story collections, Clog Shop Chronicles and Beckside Lights, John Ackworth completed the adventures of clogger Jabez Cle…
The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed
Cenydd Morus's (Kenneth Morris) imaginative retelling of tales from the Mabinogion, the great work of Welsh literature first recorded in the…
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
A limbless reptilian monster that propels itself through the swamps with a propellor-tipped tail? A creature so ashamed of its monstrous app…
Short Stories (Later works 1858-65)
Elizabeth Gaskell was a regular contributor to Dickens's 'Household Worlds' and 'All The Round' until he later years. From 1858 onwards, she…
Travels in Lancashire
A collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry on travels in Lancashire, England, with occasional sorties into adjacent counties. - Summary…
Kamakura
'Kamakura is nothing if she has no history, writes Japanese novelist, poet, and essayist Yone Noguchi. At the turn of the 20th century, Kama…
Two Tales about Aviation
Two science fiction stories in which Rudyard Kipling imagined a future world controlled by the Aërial Board of Control with its motto, …
The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician
Phra, a Phoenician merchant and warrior, settles in the south of England as husband to Blodwen, a British princess. Slain during the Roman i…
The Story of the Glittering Plain
In this early example of the modern high fantasy genre, Hallblithe, a warrior of the House of Raven, sets out in pursuit of the pirates who …
When the Birds Fly South
Dan Prescott, an American adventurer, discovers the hidden valley of Sobul in a mountainous region of Afghanistan, inhabited by a strange ra…
Small Souls
Constance van der Welcke returns to the Hague and the bosom of her family after a twenty year exile caused by a marital indiscretion and div…
Cycling in the Alps
A guide to cycling in the European Alps in the days before surfaced roads and automobile tourism. As the author explains, the spectacular vi…
Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair
A prose romance set in the forested kingdom of Oakenrealm, where a squirrel can go about from end to end without touching the ground, in whi…
Hartmann the Anarchist, or the Doom of a Great City
A gem of nineteenth-century science fiction from mountaineer, philosopher and occasional novelist, Edward Douglas Fawcett. Stanley, a wealth…
The Haunted Woman
Isabel Loment is engaged to the affectionate, but unemotional, Marshall Stokes. House-hunting for her aunt, she comes to Runhill Court, an a…
Criminal Manchester: Experiences of a Special Correspondent
Follow the Manchester Evening News 'special correspondent' and his guide - recently back from a 'seven stretch' - as they take you on a tour…
Sydney Past and Present
An account of the early history of Sydney, Australia's first colonial city. Best known for his collection of light-hearted yarns, Steve Brow…
Poems for my Children
Published in 1847, five years after her epic poem, 'Dionysus the Areopagite', 'Poems For My Children' was Ann Hawkshaw's second collection o…
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman's best known poem - a vast and multitudinous celebration of American life in which the 'myself' of the title becomes at one wit…