Phil Benson
Every Man His Own Art Critic
This collection includes two texts written to accompany two blockbuster art exhibitions: Every man his own art critic at the Manchester Exhi…
Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London
John Gay's Trivia is a satirical guide to walking the streets of London, written in mock heroic style. Learn how to avoid pickpockets, wig t…
'To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf: Contemporary Reviews (1927)
Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was published in May 1927 in both Britain and the United States. The publication of Mrs. Dalloway a year …
Dionysius the Areopagite, with other poems
An early figure in the birth of poetry in industrial Manchester, Ann Hawkshaw published three collections and another was circulated private…
Little Johannes
In this allegory of childhood and youth, a series of increasingly sinister mentors - Windekind, Wistik, Pluizer and Dr. Cypher - guide the a…
Three Accounts of Peterloo
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…
The Itinerary of John Leland in or About the Years 1535-1543
John Leland's 'Itinerary' was the product of several journeys around England and Wales undertaken between 1538 and 1543. The manuscript is m…
Footsteps of Fate
A short but intense novel, Footsteps of Fate tells of the friendship of two young Dutchmen in London, Frank and Bertie. Arriving destitute a…
The Birth of Professional Rugby League in Australia: A selection from the Sydney Morning Herald (1907-08)
In early 1907 the world of Australian rugby was rocked by the news that a professional New Zealand All Blacks team was set to tour the north…
Ancient Songs and Ballads of Lancashire
Traditional songs and ballads from Lancashire in the north-west of England from the opening section of John Harland's collection, Ballads an…
Art in Australia, No. 1, 1916
In 1916, three prominent identities in the Sydney art world - Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens and Charles Lloyd Jones - got together to pu…
The Story of Peterloo
On 16th August 1819 around 60,000 people gathered at St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester, to rally for parliamentary reform. Shortly after the me…
War Impressions: Being a Record in Colour
A personal account of the second Boer War by Australian expatriate artist Mortimer Menpes. Menpes travelled to South Africa as a corresponde…
Poems by Charles Harpur
Charles Harpur was arguably the first major Australia-born poet, best known for Australia-themed poems such as 'The Kangaroo Hunt' and the '…
The Evergreen, A Northern Seasonal. Spring 1895
The Evergreen was a short lived seasonal magazine, edited by William Sharp (Fiona Macleod) and published by Patrick Geddes, which proposed a…
Selections from Harris's Cabinet
In the early 1800s, London publisher John Harris began producing small books for children that were designed not to instruct, but to enterta…
Six lyrics from the Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko, also The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov from the Russian of Mikhaíl Lermontov
Poetry by two radical poets, born in the same year, who suffered exile and punishment under the Tsarist Russian empire. Taras Shevchenko is …
Cecil's Own Book
Ann Hawkshaw's fourth and final collection was published privately and named for her young grandson, Cecil Wedgwood. Written for children, t…
Geraldine Jewsbury in Jerrold's Shilling Magazine, 1846-47
'The most striking feature in the present day, far more than that of railways even, is the utter chaos into which all previously received pr…
Six lectures on literature
C. H. Herford was Professor of English Literature at the Victoria University of Manchester in era when public lectures were published in pam…