Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

A superb collection of captivating short stories by leading classic writers, including 'The Cone' by H. G. Wells, 'The Dream Woman' by Wilkie Collins, 'Fortunes Adrift' by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne, 'The Kidnapping of Phil Altamore' by Ella Hepworth Dixon, 'The Table Under the Tree' by E. Phillips Oppenheim, 'In Yeddo Bay' by Jack London and many more gripping short stories by famous writers.

May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863-1946), a British writer of novels, short stories and poetry and an active suffragette and spiritualist. 'The Mahatma's Story' is a strange supernatural story about an oriental magician who switches the memories of two couples, with bizarre results.

'The Other Sense' is the story of a young man, Angus MacIntyre, whose ability to see phenomena - ghosts in particular - which other people cannot has caused his guardian to think he is insane and send him to stay with Dr. Schreiber, who is specialised in mental disorders. While there, Angus begins to see the spectre of a pale young man who appears to be seeking something in the doctor's house and garden. Together with the doctor, Angus sets out to solve the mystery.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction. 'Torture' is a horror story about a schoolboy with a dangerous secret fantasy.

'Major Wilbraham' is the extraordinary tale of a respectable ex-army officer whose mysterious death is shrouded in the greatest mystery of all. What could have led to Major Wilbraham to behave like that? Causing a scene on Piccadilly, staying out all night in Green Park with a street fighter and a prostitute, causing a fight at Covent Garden Market in which he was fatally injured....

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folktales. 'Matthias the Hunter's Stories' is one of the sets of tales he collected and tells accounts of encounters with the Hulda (woodland or bogland fairy) and the brownie.

'The Puzzler' is a humorous tale of a young man who is trying to engineer a meeting with an influential law lord whom he hopes will support him with a great business idea. A fortuitous chance means he happens on the law lord while he is conducting a lighthearted experiment with a group of old school friends. They are attempting to see whether a monkey can climb an araucaria (monkey puzzle) tree. The experiment ends in farce as the monkey escapes and gets into the house...exactly at the moment when the owners of the house appear.

A superb anthology of 40 great classic humorous stories.

'Relics of General Chassé' is a humorous tale of a corpulent and somewhat dandified clergyman who, while visiting the castle at Antwerp, inadvertently becomes separated from his breeches. What follows shakes him to the core. The breeches fall into the hands of a group of female English tourists who decide to take some sample of the cloth as a souvenir.

Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934) was an English novelist and journalist who wrote his comic novels and humorous short stories under the pseudonym F. Anstey. 'At a Moment's Notice' is the amusing tale of a young man who is involved in a cab accident on Pall Mall. When he comes to after the crash, he has mysteriously been transformed into an organ grinder's monkey. His adventures in his new state are extraordinary and hilarious.

'Number Fifty-Six' is a humorous tale of a Chinese laundryman who gets to know his clients through their laundry habits. He is able to infer much from the state of the various shirts, handkerchiefs, waistcoats which are delivered to him for washing. Of all his clients he is most fascinated by number 56...a man with strangely fluctuating shirt habits. And then one fateful day, a dreadful set of laundry is delivered to him....

Edward Alexander Crowley (1875-1947) was a British writer, poet, magician and follower of the occult who wrote under the name Aleister Crowley. His works scandalised Victorian England with their diabolical and deviantly sexual themes. 'The Drug' is the story of a man who accepts a strange drug from an alchemist and goes on a terrifying psychic trip.

Francis Bret Harte (1839-1902) was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short stories set against the background of the California gold rush. He himself set off at the age of 15 to become a gold miner and absorbed the rough atmosphere of the mining camps, which he used as a setting against which the interplay of human emotions stands out poignantly. 'Miggles' is an outstanding example of his humorously tender style which made his stories so popular.

'A New Cook' is one of Munro's hilarious tales of Para Handy, Sunny Jim and the rest of the crew of the Vital Spark. The ship is welcoming a new cook whose talents include dancing, melodeon playing, practical joking...but sadly not culinary skill.

Charles Dickens' brilliant comic adventure of a lamplighter, Tom Grig, who is called into the house of an eccentric astronomer who is searching for the philosopher's stone. He declares that the stars have foretold that Tom will marry the astronomer's niece and inherit the secret of the philosopher's stone, which will make him the richest man on earth.

Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934) was an English novelist and journalist who wrote his comic novels and humorous short stories under the pseudonym F. Anstey. 'A Bohemian Bag' is the story of a piece of luggage with a perverse mind of its own. The Gladstone bag in question goes on its own travels every time it is left in the care of a railway porter or station master...usually catching up with its hapless owner only days later.

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folktales. 'An Old Fashioned Christmas Eve' describes a young Norwegian soldier recovering from an illness who finds himself stranded on Christmas Eve with a family who sit around the fire telling a series of quite extraordinary folktales and ghost stories.

Edward Alexander Crowley (1875-1947), who wrote under the name Aleister Crowley, was a British occultist, magician, writer and poet. He shocked Victorian Britain with his stories and novels of diabolical magic and deviant sexuality which pushed far beyond the acceptable boundaries of the day. 'The Violinist' is a terrifyingly erotic and wicked tale of a female violinist whose wild fiddle playing is filled with sexuality and pure evil, with the power to raise demons and commit murder.

A. J. Alan was the pseudonym of Leslie Harrison Lambert (1883-1941), an English magician, intelligence officer, short story writer and radio broadcaster. He was hugely popular in the '20s and '30s for his radio broadcasts, when he performed his own humorous and often macabre short stories. 'The Photograph' is a short story about a photographer who is hired to take pictures of an old historical house. When the negatives are developed, there are some strange and very eerie images on the film....

'The Magic H's' is a humorous tale of a young, rich, eligible and attractive young aristocrat: Harald Hipperholme. Tragically, the young man suffers a speech impediment - he is unable to pronounce the letter H - which in polite London society amounts to social death. The young earl sounds more like a Cockney without his H's. He resorts in the first place to elocution lessons but with no success. Then he tries black magic and conjures up a demon who agrees to help him. But of course there is a terrible catch to the deal....