Showing results by narrator "Charles Featherstone" in All Categories

The last volume of Chesterton's collected essays, Gathered from the London Mercury, the New Witness, and the Illustrated London News, it is the only volume from after WWI, and is most serious, philosophical, and socially direct collection.

By 1617, Donne had done it all. After being an MP, lawyer, womaniser, soldier, diplomat, father to twelve children by a secret wife, and the greatest poet of his age, he settled into the priesthood. Shortly thereafter, his wife died, prompting him to write a defence of suicide in God's eyes. She was soon followed by his 18 year old daughter died. Then Donne fell gravely ill. Physicians were called, but none could agree on what to do. It seemed certain that he would die.

The Renaissance gave us a lot of things, including the earliest science fiction that relates to modern science. The book would now be called hard sci fi, as it leans heavily into the known orbital mechanics of the moon.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal detective returns for ten puzzling cases ranging from his earliest career to his final bows.

This is the heartbreaking and passionate tale of true love's blindness and destruction by the bestselling author of the Victorian era, who romances were beloved of figures as diverse as Gladstone, Churchill, and Queen Victoria herself.

’Jane ’came out’ at fifty-seven and everybody knew it.’ So begins this heartwarming tale of a courteous country maid who comes into a vast inheritance, and uses it to travel into high society in London. along the way, she encounters the snobs of the society set, royalty entirely without regality, and a whole host of characters that make clear just how much better off she is away from the glitz and glamour.

"I exhort therefore, that intercessions be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." - 1 Timothy 2. This verse is the center of this fascinating, rip-roaring, family friendly deeply Christian tale.

In 1638, in the first age of modern astronomy, as the starts opened up to us, the scientists of the time found themselves bound into fantastical visions based on their new knowledge. This was perhaps the first 'hard' sci fi, at least based on the cutting edge of knowledge from the time. Drawing on contemporary theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Gilbert, the inhabitants of the Moon in this story are a tall Christian people encountered by a roguish hero who must learn of their lands, and gains items that allow the control of light, heat, and gravity.

"I hate God!" Said Angel. And having made this un-angel-like statement, she folded her short arms across her breast and surveyed her horrified audience defiantly. So begins a tale of a poor child's expulsion from Sunday school for the cruelties of a God who would allow her parents to die, and her life to be one of unending misery.

A thrilling tale of the Devil's final ride between the darkness and dawn, watching as mankind falls victim to the curse of progress and speed, rejecting all peace and silence, all reflection and godliness. As he goes, he gathers phantoms and monsters, hell-bound victims and dark shadows, all the while telling the natural world to rejoice, for it will soon be free of the curse of Man. Written in 1910, this Christian tome is as relevant today as it was a century ago, as people fall victim to the next and fastest thing, falling away from God in the process.

The birth of liberation movements in the C19th saw a rise in fighting for the rights of workers. William Morris believed decries the belief “not that Commerce was made for man, but that man was made for Commerce”, with the profit motive that renders all work miserable when “It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious.”

In which street is the Diogenes Club? A Study in Pink is a problem deserving how many nicotine patches? Who is found dead in a locked chamber, with a poison dart above his ear? Which company employed a full-time secretary to answer Sherlock-related mail? What kind of creature swallowed the Blue Carbuncle? And in which TV episode can we find a cross-dressing Jude Law?

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born into a very unusual situation in 1878. He was the eldest scion of a family that had lived in the oldest castle in Ireland since its construction in 1180 CE, and became the 18th Baron Dunsany in 1899 at the age of 21, when his father passed away. He was a soldier, lord, military trainer, propaganda writer, activist, and invented Dunsany’s Chess, in which one player has four ranks of pawns and no other pieces. He published mostly first drafts, writing short stories, fantasy novels, plays, and poems, with over 90 publications in his lifetime.

A captivating, uproarious and informative journey through the beginnings of British history. Gilbert Abbott à Beckett was one of the great journalists of his time, being a descendant of Thomas Becket who edited Figaro, was a founder member of Punch, and wrote for The Times, The Morning Herald, and The Illustrated London News. He also wrote around fifty plays, as well as two operas, and is best known for this history of England.

One of the four central works in Daoism. The Lie-Tzu, or Liezi, was originally thought to have been composed in the same period as the Dao and Zhuang Zi, around the 5th century BCE. However, it is now believed to have been compiled nearly a thousand years later, around 400 CE.

Scarlett took her degrees in archaeology, a subject that was finding new ground. She became an academic at Cambridge in the recently founded women's college: Newnham. Archaeology was not regarded as a serious subject and so was available to young women, whereas medicine and mathematics continued as the preserve of men, Despite the single subject of her degree she was a polymath and fulminated at the lack of appreciation of her other talents.

Step into the madcap medieval world of A Comic History of England, Book IV, where Gilbert Abbott à Beckett turns the tumultuous era of Henry IV to Richard III into a sidesplitting spectacle!

Meet Tricky—the most mischievous (and utterly unkillable!) monkey you’ll ever encounter. Rescued from a rough start by a kind missionary, this little troublemaker swings from one chaotic escapade to the next, leaving a trail of baffled humans in his wake. Whether escaping hangings, outsmarting sailors, or surviving gunfire (with nothing but a singed tail to show for it!), Tricky’s luck is as uncanny as his antics are outrageous.

James Allen’s The Shining Gateway is a profound exploration of spiritual awakening, self-mastery, and the transformative power of thought. Published in 1915, this timeless work serves as both a philosophical guide and a practical manual for those seeking inner peace, wisdom, and enlightenment.

A poignant exploration of love, loss, and the passage of time, imbued with a melancholic beauty that mirrors the author’s own reckoning with mortality and the changing tides of literature. This collection of short stories was released just before Corelli’s death, and is unlike any of her other tales. Corelli was the bestselling queen of Victorian romantic fiction, beloved by the public and Queen Victoria herself… but the Great War (WWI) war changed everyone, Corelli included.