Phil Benson
Prose Romances from the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine (1856)
Read by Phil Benson
William Morris
William Morris initiated the genre of high fantasy in a number of short novels written toward the end of his life. But he had already experi…
Poems for my Children
Read by Phil Benson
Ann Hawkshaw
Published in 1847, five years after her epic poem, 'Dionysus the Areopagite', 'Poems For My Children' was Ann Hawkshaw's second collection o…
The Story of Peterloo
Read by Phil Benson
Francis Archibald Bruton
On 16th August 1819 around 60,000 people gathered at St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester, to rally for parliamentary reform. Shortly after the me…
The Present Picture of New South Wales
Read by Phil Benson
David Dickinson Mann
Convicted of forgery at the age of 23, David Dickenson Mann narrowly escaped hanging and was transported instead to New South Wales, where h…
Cycling in the Alps
Read by Phil Benson
C. L. Freeston
A guide to cycling in the European Alps in the days before surfaced roads and automobile tourism. As the author explains, the spectacular vi…
Things Seen in Venice
Read by Phil Benson
Lonsdale Ragg and Laura Marie Ragg
Venice, once among the most powerful states of the Western world, now a much-visited but still romantic city of canals, architecture and art…
Jaufry the Knight and the Fair Brunissende
Read by Phil Benson
Jean-Bernard Mary-Lafon
Taulat de Rugimon arrives at the court of King Arthur and stabs one of Arthur's knights. Jaufry, a young and ambitious knight, sets off in p…
Tim Bobbin: A View of the Lancashire Dialect
Read by Phil Benson
Various
A comic dialogue written in John Collier's idiosyncratic version of the 18th century South Lancashire dialect together with a collection of …
Things Seen in Florence
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth W. Grierson
One of the largest and wealthiest cities of medieval Europe, the home of Dante and Giotto has long been a magnet for lovers of art, architec…
Short Stories (Household Words, 1854-58)
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell published 18 short works in Charles Dickens' Household Words between 1850 and 1858. This collection follows the Librivox c…
Kamakura
Read by Phil Benson
Yone Noguchi
'Kamakura is nothing if she has no history, writes Japanese novelist, poet, and essayist Yone Noguchi. At the turn of the 20th century, Kama…
BLAST No. 1
Read by Phil Benson
Various
BLAST, edited by Wyndham Lewis and subtitled 'Review of the Great British Vortex', was the magazine of the short-lived Vorticist movement in…
A Guide to the Lakes
Read by Phil Benson
Thomas West
In the late eighteenth century, English writers discovered the landscape, not only in the paintings of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and S…
Lancashire Characters and Places
Read by Phil Benson
Thomas Newbigging
An eclectic collection of essays on late 19th-century Lancashire culture and life, including essays on the poets John Critchley Prince and E…
Three Accounts of Peterloo
Read by Phil Benson
Francis Archibald Bruton
A companion volume to F.A. Bruton's 'The Story of Peterloo', the full title of this short collection is 'Three Accounts of Peterloo by Eyewi…
Dionysius the Areopagite, with other poems
Read by Phil Benson
Ann Hawkshaw
An early figure in the birth of poetry in industrial Manchester, Ann Hawkshaw published three collections and another was circulated private…
North Lancashire
Read by Phil Benson
John Edward Marr
Cambridge County Geographies was a 75 volume series covering the counties of England, Scotland and Wales. Separate volumes were produced for…
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Read by Phil Benson
William T. Cox
A limbless reptilian monster that propels itself through the swamps with a propellor-tipped tail? A creature so ashamed of its monstrous app…
Small Souls
Read by Phil Benson
Louis Couperus
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…
Coniston Tales
Read by Phil Benson
William Gershom Collingwood
A selection of poems and short prose pieces grounded in the landscape, history and legends of Coniston in the English Lake District. W. G. C…