Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright who is sometimes credited as the original 'Father of Science Fiction'. Written in 1851, 'A Drama in the Air' is one of Verne's earliest and most seminal stories, telling the dramatic adventure of a balloonist suddenly confronted with an unexpected and unpredictable passenger who climbs into his balloon at the point of take-off. Many of the themes from this tale were expanded by Verne in his later and better known works about aerial journeys around the world or to the moon.

In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are faced with a most unusual case. Two years earlier a young woman died under mysterious and unexplained circumstances while alone in her locked bedroom. Her last words to her sister referred to a 'speckled band'. She had previously complained of hearing a strange whistling sound in the night. Now the sister is sleeping in the same room, and she too has heard the mysterious whistling. But what can it be? And what is the 'speckled band'?

A Vine on a House is a classic Gothic haunted house story. The old abandoned Harding house, which is now overgrown by an unusual vine, has a strange and sinister story behind it. Years before, the mother of the household disappeared suddenly. Two years later the family abandoned the house. More recent visitors have discovered the vine growing up the front of the house behaving very oddly. Finally the local authorities decide to dig up the vine....

'A Little Cloud' is a brilliant and evocative short story from Joyce's collection Dubliners comparing the lives of those who escaped Ireland and travelled around Europe compared to the quiet, dull existence of those who remain at home. Thomas Chandler meets an old friend, Ignatius Gallaher, for a drink. Gallaher has made a name for himself in London and has been as far as Paris and Berlin. Chandler's life by comparison is unfulfilled. His job is boring, his marriage loveless and his soul weary.

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 Perfect Close' is the story of a 79-year-old man who realises one day that he is about to die. Seeing that he has only an hour or so left to live, he must decide how to spend his final moments. We accompany him on the last minutes of his life as he achieves his last couple of surprising but highly satisfying victories.

'Miss Avenal' is a creepy story in the classic Victorian vampire genre. An invalid, Miss Avenal, engages a trained nurse to look after her while she recuperates in a remote moorland house somewhere in the north of England. But as Miss Avenal recovers her strength, the young nurse feels her own health start to ebb away.

The Man Who Could Work Miracles is a story about Fotheringay, a very unexceptional man who discovers he has an exceptional talent. He can work miracles. He discovers this ability by accident during an argument in a public house - and narrowly avoids setting light to the pub. Some of his other experiments also go awry, and Fotheringay decides to consult the local minister. The latter immediately recognises the potential of this gift and eggs Fotheringay on to greater miracles - with ever greater consequences.

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. The Interlopers is the story of two sworn enemies who find themselves trapped and injured under a fallen tree in a forest at night.

Max Carrados is called in to investigate a mysterious ghost which haunts an empty flat in Massingham Mansions in London. Every night gaslights are seen in the apartment, even though the gas has been disconnected. Also water runs in the bath every night, even though the water supply has been turned off. Carrados quickly realises that the detectives on the case are barking up the wrong tree....

Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was a British journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian golden age of the short story. This collection brings together some of the finest and most diverse examples of Fletcher's genius. 'The Ivory God' is the tale of a failing writer who acquires a strange ivory carving of an Indian god. He becomes convinced that the statue is communicating with him, taking possession of him, even writing through him.

A newly qualified doctor receives a call from his first patient - a mysterious woman who is deeply distressed and who is covered in a thick black veil. She tells him a confusing story about a dying man who she wishes the doctor to visit the following day, although she assures the doctor that the patient will certainly be dead by then. The young doctor agrees that he will make the visit at nine on the next morning...and finds himself on the strangest professional call of his entire life.

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English author, born in one of the Five Towns which form the background of so many of his witty stories. 'The Fire of London' is an unusual mystery story about a case of fraud and blackmail. Bruce Bowring, a businessman of dubious integrity, has been running what amounts to a Ponzi scheme in the heart of the city of London. At the start of our story, Bowring receives a mysterious telephone call from a stranger, warning him that his house will be burgled that evening....

Robert Barr (1849-1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. 'The Hour-Glass' is a mysterious ghost story. An avid antique collector buys an ancient and defective hourglass from a curiosity shop. When he takes it home and starts to examine it, he is startled by a strange visitor who claims to be the real owner of the hourglass. His story is a very bizarre one.

'A Bracelet at Bruges' is a mystery story about a lost diamond bracelet. Initially there does not appear to be any mystery about the loss. Kitty Sartorius, the famous actress, visiting Bruges with her friend Eve Fincastle, had just passed the valuable trinket to her new acquaintance Madame Lawrence to look at, when the latter accidentally dropped the jewellery into the canal. But despite the best efforts of the Bruges police department to drain the bottom of the canal over several days, the bracelet does not reappear.

The Welsh Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydein, 'Triads of the Island of Britain') are a group medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in the form of wise sayings. The triads are terse statements of three related facts - probably to make them easier to remember. The oldest triads predate Christianity, their origins lost in the dark ages. Yet they show clearly that far from being barbarians, our ancient forefathers lived according to an advanced level of philosophy and ethics.

Seven famous and sensational true crime stories retold by classic crime writers.

Herbert Armstrong was a Welsh solicitor who murdered his wife by administering arsenic. His life was marked by love affairs and dubious business dealings. It is also probable that his hatred of his dull, respectable existence in a tiny rural village was one of the motives for his terrible crime. This story of the crime and trial of Armstrong is told by Edgar Wallace, who reported from the courtroom. On behalf of a newspaper syndicate, Wallace offered the convicted man £5,000 for his confession. The offer was refused.

Edgar Alfred Jepson (1863-1938) was an English author best known for his adventure and detective fiction. He also wrote supernatural and fantasy stories. 'The Battersea Flat Mystery' is the true story of a particularly unusual unsolved murder in the Battersea area of London. A man is found shot on the stairs outside the empty flat below the one where his ex-mistress lives and where his son is visiting for supper. A mysterious stranger is seen running from the scene.

The Cafè of the Broken Heart is situated near the cemetery at Monmartre. When a widow calls by on the last day of the year and asks for a private room to grieve on the third anniversary of the death of her late husband, she is irritated to learn that the room is already occupied. She gets into conversation with the other mourner - a young artist - and discovers that he has a very strange story to tell.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist who was also a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The House of Strange Stories' is the tale of an evening after dinner when the various members of a house party take turns to relate a ghost story which they have experienced themselves. The stories become stranger and stranger as the evening goes on.