"Wilkie Collins was born on 8th January 1824 in Marylebone, London. The family moved several times in his early years before, at 12, they travelled to France and Italy for 2 years where the sights and atmosphere made a deep and lasting impression on him.He resumed his education at Mr Cole’s private boarding school in Highbury, Islington. Here, he began his literary career under unusual circumstances: the school bully would give him no peace until he had been told a bedtime story. This ‘little brute’ helped create one of England’s greatest writers. On leaving school, in 1841, he became a clerk at a tea merchant before, 2 years later, publishing his first short story. However, his first novel was rejected and remained so during his lifetime. A brief stint at Lincoln’s Inn to please his father and to acquire a steady income was halted by his father’s death. Collins then wrote and published his fathers’ memoirs. He then completed his legal education though he would never practice. In March 1851, he was introduced to Charles Dickens and there now started a period of sustained literary output and a remarkable lifelong friendship. His stories were published in Dicken’s magazines, and he toured with Dicken’s theatrical before the two of them travelled to the Continent.By the early 1860’s worrying signs of ill-health appeared with rheumatic gout. As it worsened, he sought respite and cures in German spa towns and gave up writing to help his recuperation.His personal life had become very complicated. He was living with the widowed Caroline Graves and conducting an affair with a much younger Martha Rudd. With the serialised release of ‘The Moonstone’ and vicious attacks of gout Caroline left him and married another. Collins was now prescribed opium and was soon its lifelong dependent. Martha bore him two children and with the return of a now divorced Caroline Graves he now divided his time between the two women.In 1874 he set aside writing to tour North America on a reading tour.Throughout his later years he continued to write and publish. In all 30 novels, 14 plays, 60 short stories and over a 100 non-fiction essays as well as many more collaborations with Dickens.In 1884 the Society of Authors elected him as it’s Vice-President.Wilkie Collins died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, in London. He was 65."
"There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.From their pens to your your ears.01 - 3 Stories - Horror Stories in Diaries02 - The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle03 - The Horla by Guy de Maupassant04 - The Tomb of Sarah by F G Loring"
"Being on a ship is usually very safe. The days of sinking after hitting an iceberg are almost unthinkable. A ship goes from one port to another, seemingly without a care in the world. Advanced technology has kept this means of transport as no more uncomfortable as maybe a bit of queasiness after going up and down in a storm. But worse? No, not really possible, is it?In this volume our authors beg to differ. They would like to bring us stories where being on a ship is simply the worse place to be. Horror and terror, and worse, infest their narratives and threaten all and everything aboard. 1 - Horror Stories at Sea - An Introduction2 - The Brute by Joseph Conrad3 - The Horla by Guy De Maupassant 4 - A Fight with a Cannon by Victor Hugo5 - The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder by William Hope Hodgson6 - The Striped Chest by Arthur Conan Doyle7 - The Upper Berth by F Marion Crawford8 - The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson"
"Love. Perhaps the one word solution for everything. An emotion, a state of mind that we strive for, search for. A wondrous force that binds, inspires, and a force that can spin out of control; unbalanced and fragile. Love reflects, changes and embraces us all. In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country. By a choice of vows each undertakes to stay with the other through the good times and the bad. And most probably there will be plenty of both and much in between. But the union of marriage comes in many shades and hues, some balanced, some destined to last a lifetime and others set to fizzle out or stumble to an ill-mannered conclusion in separation or divorce and, of course, death. In this volume our literary friends take on all manner of marriages and deliver stories that reveal every face and every facet of what marriage really is.1 - Marriage - Short Stories - An Introduction2 - Bliss by Katherine Mansfield3 - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Part 1 by Oscar Wilde4 - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Part 2 by Oscar Wilde5 - The Border Line by D H Lawrence6 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin7 - The Dowry by Guy de Maupassant8 - The Wife of His Youth by Charles W Chesnutt9 - Right At Last by Elizabeth Gaskell10 - The Difference by Ellen Glasgow11 - The Dream Woman by Wilkie Collins12 - The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson13 - Red Tape by Mary Sinclair14 - Two Offers by Frances Watkins Harper15 - The Star by W F Harvey16 - The Revolt of Mother by Mary Wilkins E Freeman17 - Foreordained by Anthony Hope18 - Odour of Chrysanthemums by D H Lawrence"
"Love. Perhaps the one word solution for everything. An emotion, a state of mind that we strive for, search for. A wondrous force that binds, inspires, and a force that can spin out of control; unbalanced and fragile. Love reflects, changes and embraces us all. In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country. The capture of love in this life is a very special happening, it may only strike us once, and for some perhaps never. But what if those on the ‘other side’ have designs on us? What if their desire is just so strong that we can’t resist? Can true love survive?1 - Love Beyond the Grave - Short Stories - An Introduction2 - The Testament of Magdalen Blair - Part 1 by Aleister Crowley3 - The Testament of Magdalen Blair - Part 2 by Aleister Crowley4 - The Dream Woman by Wilkie Collins5 - The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling6 - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu7 - The Story of Salome by Amelia Edwards8 - The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce9 - The Haunted Orchard by Richard Gallienne10 - The Mystery of the Semi Detached by Edith Nesbit11 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon12 - The Snow by Hugh Walpole13 - The Second Generation by Algernon Blackwood14 - Since I Died by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps15 - Wake Not the Dead - Part 1 by Ernst Raupach16 - Wake Not the Dead - Part 2 by Ernst Raupach"
