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  The First Christmas Tree - A...

  Henry Van Dyke

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  This everlasting tale of the first Christmas tree follows the monk Winfred as he journeys to lands far and wide to teach others about Christianity. During his adventure, he happens upon those who believe in the ancient thunder god Thor and teaches them the way of Christ. One of the most classic short stories about Christmas, Henry van Dyke's The First Christmas Tree is the perfect listen for audiences of all ages.

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  The Purple Wig

  G.K. Chesterton

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  Publisher's SummaryGilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer best known for his fictional priest-detective, Father Brown.In The Purple Wig, an investigative journalist, Frances Finn, sets out to discover the strange secret of the dukes of Exmoor and the legend of their mysterious hereditary deformed ear. When Finn meets the current duke, he is wearing a hideous purple wig, which apparently he never takes off in the presence of anybody. It would appear to be an ugly way of hiding his deformity...but Father Brown, who is visiting the duke at the time, is suspicious about the motives for wearing such a wig. As the investigation progresses, the story takes a highly unexpected turn.

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  The Marquise

  George Sand

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  George Sand was the pseudonym of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), and was a much admired French novelist and memoirist. She is equally well known for her much-publicized romantic affairs with a number of celebrities including Frédéric Chopin and Alfred de Musset. It was the way Sand turned her own love affairs into novels and stories packed with vehemence of spirit which endeared her to her audience.In The Marquise, Sand displays her instinctive feeling for the true sense of the "conte" or short story. She neither analyses nor explains the character of the old noblewoman who fell in love with an actor, she merely suggests the strength of passion in the cold, cynical, aged beauty. She leaves the listener's imagination vibrating with its own images thrown up by the hints she gives. A truly exceptional short story.

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  The Apple - Crimson Petal Stories

  Michel Faber

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  These stories go deeper into the Victorian world and lives of the acclaimed international bestseller, The Crimson Petal and the White.Michel Faber’s tale of love and lust in the Victorian Era, The Crimson Petal and the White, was hailed as “a Dickensian novel for our times.” Now a major BBC TV drama, the saga of a prostitute named Sugar and the man who longs to possess her captured hearts and left readers desperate for more (The Guardian, UK).In The Apple, Faber returns to Silver Street to find it still teeming with life, and conjures further tantalizing glimpses of Sugar, Clara, William, Mr. Bodley and many other favorites. For both fans of the novel and newcomers to this rich and historically vivid world, The Apple confirms that “Michel Faber is a master of the short-story form” (The Times Literary Supplement, UK).“This book will be read in a sitting. unless of course you are admitted to Accident and Emergency, having come over queer, huffing with laughter, or dizzy with envy at Faber’s talent. Or probably both.”—The Scotsman, UK

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  M R James - A Short Story...

  M R James

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  Montague Rhodes James is cited as perhaps the greatest English writer of ghost stories, an opinion few would disagree with. 
   
  James was born on 1st August 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, where his father was Curate but at age 3 the family went to live at Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia.  
   
  From early childhood he had a passion for mediaeval books and antiques. He was educated initially as a boarder at Temple Grove School in East Sheen, west London, before gaining a scholarship to Eton and thence Cambridge where he gained a double first, becoming a distinguished linguist and mediaevalist.  
   
  Before the Great War vacations were usually spent touring Europe absorbing cultures and references for his later writing. 
   
  A man of enormous knowledge it was said he timed his breakfast egg whilst he completed the Times crossword.  
   
  Many of his elegant yet terrifying tales were created by discarding the prevailing gothic cliches and placing his characters and narrative in a realistic setting.  Thereby the stories gained atmosphere and menace on a grand scale and he was famed as the originator of the antiquarian ghost story. 
   
  Although story-telling and writing these 30 or so tales was a hobby, when published their effect transformed the genre and still chill the bones in our more modern times. 
   
  James was also a medievalist scholar and translator whose work remains highly respected. He was also Provost of Eton College between 1918 and 1936. 
   
  M R James died on 12th June 1936 at Eton in Buckinghamshire.  He was 73.   
   
  His classic story ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad’ exquisitely reveals how a young professor on holiday chances on a buried whistle and folklore becomes terrifying fact. 
  1 - M R James - An Introduction 
  2 - Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad by M R James 
  3 - Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book by M R James 
  4 - Count Magnus by M R James 
  5 - The Ash Tree by M R James 
  6 - Lost Hearts by M R James

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  The Man Who Could Work Miracles

  H G Wells

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  Herbert George Wells was born on September 21st, 1866 in Bromley in Kent. He was the youngest of four siblings and his family affectionately knew him as ‘Bertie’. 
   
  The first few years of his childhood were spent fairly quietly, and Wells didn’t display much literary interest until, in 1874, he accidentally broke his leg and was left to recover in bed, largely entertained by the library of books his father regularly brought him. Through these Wells found he could escape the boredom and misery of his bed and convalescence by exploring the new worlds he encountered in these books. 
   
  From these humble beginnings began a career that was, after several delays, to be seen as one of the most brilliant of modern English writers. 
   
  Able to write comfortably in a number of genres he was especially applauded for his science fiction works such as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds but his forays into the social conditions of the times, with classics such as Kipps, were almost as commercially successful.  His short stories are miniature masterpieces many of which bring new and incredible ideas of science fiction to the edge of present day science fact.  Wells also received four nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. 
   
  Despite a strong and lasting second marriage his affairs with other women also brought the complications of fathering other children.  His writings and work against fascism, as well as the promotion of socialism, brought him into increasing doubts with, and opposition to, religion.  His writings on what the world could be in works, such as A Modern Utopia, are thought-provoking as well as being plausible, especially when viewed from the distressing times they were written in. 
   
  His diabetic condition pushed him to create what is now the largest Diabetes charity in the United Kingdom.  Wells even found the time to run twice for Parliament. It was a long, distinguished and powerfully successful career by the time he died, aged 79, on August 13th, 1946.

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