Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

'The Registered Packet' is the story of Martineau, a young man returning home by ship after a two-year absence. On the ship he meets a stranger and volunteers to deliver a small parcel for him to the nearest post office, in order that his fellow traveller might catch his train. But on arrival in Hull, Martineau inadvertently leaves his bag in the cab. He is able to track down the vehicle and find his bag again, but to his horror the packet which was entrusted to him has disappeared.

Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906), who wrote as Mrs J. H. Riddel, was one of the most popular and influential writers of the Victorian period. 'A Strange Christmas Game' is a brilliantly constructed ghost story with a strange twist at the end.

Ella Hepworth Dixon (1855-1932) was a British short story writer, journalist and novelist. 'The World's Slow Stain' is the story of a reconciliation which goes catastrophically wrong. Adela Buller and Anthony Mellingham, whose love affair ended badly 10 years earlier meet again and agree to marry. But after they broke up the first time, Adela published a bitter novel under a pseudonym in which she modelled the lead character - a dreadful cad - on Mellingham.

'The Man Who Missed the Bus' is a creepy horror story about a lonely and eccentric man who finds himself unable to see other human faces. Worse still, gradually he also loses the ability to see his own reflection in the mirror. But this is only the beginning of the horror story. Far worse is to come....

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. 'Mr. Huffam' is a heartwarming story about a delightful stranger who, on account of his personal bonhomie and his wonderful ability to tell stories, charms the household of Sir Roderick Winslow, from the haughty aristocratic relatives to the domestics.

The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Never more so than in this collection of 30 weird and macabre tales.

Neil Munro (1863-1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic - a serious writer but now known mainly for his humorous short stories. 'Treasure Trove' is an amusing tale of a time when a whale was beached on a Scottish island just off the coast by Tobermory. The crew of a passing ship, led by the enterprising Sunny Jim, came up with a cunning plan to charge visitors to see the whale. The plan worked brilliantly - until the whale began to decay....

Amyas Northcote (1864-1923) was an English writer and contemporary of M. R. James who was best known for his ghost stories. 'The Downs' is a classic ghost story which demonstrates Northcote's understated genius. The story starts out as a regular tale, but with a few understated clues as to the nature of the horror that is to come - perfectly setting the atmosphere of creepy tension.

Arthur George Morrison (1863-1945) was an English writer and journalist known for his realistic novels and stories about working-class life in London's East End. 'Dobbs' Parrot' is a cleverly constructed humorous story about a con artist who manages to swindle four people simultaneously by selling them all a parrot in a cage, despite the fact that he has neither parrot nor cage at the start of the story.

Amyas Northcote (1864-1923) was an English writer and a contemporary of M. R. James. He is best known for his ghost stories. 'The Young Lady in Black' is an eerie tale of a woman who died, leaving one crucial task in her life unfinished. The tale poses at the outset the question of whether the dead can return to earth to bring incomplete tasks to their conclusion...and the weird circumstances of this story appear to confirm the theory.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, critic and writer of fiction and is particularly well known for his morbid and supernatural stories. 'Never Bet the Devil Your Head' is a tale which reveals Poe's sense of humour - a gruesome and fantastic humour. It is a witty take on the Faust theme - an antihero inadvertently enters into a terrible wager with the devil.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterisation, and surprise endings. 'Roads of Destiny' is an intriguing story about a young would-be poet, David, who is running away from home after a quarrel with his beloved. He reaches a crossroads - but which road will he take?

'Mr. Tallent's Ghost' is an amusing tale about an eccentric writer who likes to read his appalling and tedious novels aloud to his relatives...or indeed anyone who will listen. He persuades a lawyer to draw up a will devoting his entire fortune to funding the publication of his writing. Shortly after this, news of Mr. Tallent's death arrives. The disinherited relations dispute the will vigorously, and soon after this, the ghost of Mr. Tallent begins to haunt the relatives and the executor.

'Sparkling Biacrene' is a humorous story about a young chemist who invents a marvellous new type of nonalcoholic drink based on a marvellous Amazonian herb with astounding properties. He names his invention 'Sparkling Biacrene' and excitedly invites his uncle to dinner with his employer and a manufacturer of soda waters to discuss the commercial potential of the drink.

Twenty classic tales featuring doctors, patients, feverish imaginations, sick minds and unwell bodies, including 'Under the Knife' by H. G. Wells, 'Room Number Ten' by Bessie Kyffin-Taylor, 'Story of the Vanishing Patient' by Elia J. Peattie, 'The District Doctor' by Ivan Turgenev, 'Dead of Night' by W. F. Harvey, 'Cool Air' by H. P. Lovecraft, 'The Operation' by Violet Hunt, 'The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number' by Gertrude Atherton and more.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist, famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. 'The Beard' is the touching and insightful tale of a narcissistic and pompous father who is struggling to raise his pubescent son, who is enraged at and embarrassed by his father, yet the codependency between the two still exercises a magnetic pull.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and surprise endings. 'Between Rounds' is the tale of a lost child, the six-year old son of the owner of a boarding house with a colourful and eclectic range of boarders. For a brief period of the child's absence, the inhabitants pause in their regular activities and relationships. The interlude is described in a warm and gently humorous manner.

Neil Munro (1863-1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic who is now mainly known for his humorous short stories. 'The Tudor Cup' is an amusing tale based on stereotypes. Two crooked London art dealers are set on swindling an eccentric Scottish Laird of a valuable artefact in his collection: a Tudor cup of silver. A similar cup had sold recently at Sotheby's for a small fortune. But the canny Scot sees straight through the swindle and manages to double-cross the duo quite ingeniously.

'The Thing in the Upper Room' is a classic Victorian horror story. Poor young English artist Attwater is delighted to find an oddly cheap top-floor room to rent in an old house in Paris. The room, as he is aware, has a reputation for being haunted. But what the nature of the haunting is, nobody seems to know - the place has been let only once in living memory owing to its reputation, and that tenant had committed suicide at the point where the police were breaking down his door to arrest him for murder.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. 'Wireless' is a multilayered story set in a chemist's shop, where the nephew of the business' owner occupies a back room where he is experimenting with Marconi's new radio technology. The chemist's assistant, lovesick and also sick with tuberculosis, is staying in the shop overnight. The narrator is visiting, officially to observe the radio experiments...but he discovers that another set of signals are being received in the chemist's shop.