Robert Maskell

Owen Oliver was born Joshua Albert Flynn in Sheerness, Kent, on 15th September 1863. He was the eldest son of Albert Spencer Flynn and benefitted from a good education at private schools and then on to graduating at King's College, London. Writing...

Richard Barham Middleton was born on the 28th October 1882 in Staines, Middlesex.His education was primarily at Cranbrook School in Kent before he began work as a clerk, in 1901, at the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation in London. There he...

The novelist and screenwriter James Hilton was born in 1900. He is best remembered for the novels ‘Lost Horizon’ and ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He earned an Oscar for co-writing Mrs. Miniver in 1942. Author - James Hilton. Narrator - Robert Maskell....

Richard Barham Middleton was born on the 28th October 1882 in Staines, Middlesex.His education was primarily at Cranbrook School in Kent before he began work as a clerk, in 1901, at the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation in London. There he...

John Donne was born on the 22nd January 1572 in London, into a Roman Catholic family when Catholicism was illegal in England, and there was turbulence and unrest with both state and church throughout much of Europe.His father, also named John, died...

Ferguson Wright Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire on the 8th July 1859.When he was three the family emigrated to Dunedin in New Zealand. Here he started his education at the Otago Boys' High School before studying law at the University of Otago....

Tom Hood was born on the 19th January 1835 at Lake House, Leytonstone just outside of London, the son of the famed poet Thomas Hood.Hood was educated at University College School and Louth Grammar School before attending Pembroke College, Oxford, in...

Louisa MacDonald was born in 1845, one of eleven children of part Scottish descent. Together with three of her sisters they were known as the ‘MacDonald sisters’ primarily because of their marriages to well-known men.In 1866 she married the wealthy...

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born on the 1st April 1875 in Greenwich, London. Leaving school at 12 because of truancy, by the age of fifteen he had experience; selling newspapers, as a worker in a rubber factory, as a shoe shop assistant, as a...

Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult...

Almost always when we think of Ghost Stories, we first think of those written by the Victorians.When you consider the depth of literary talent available over the extraordinary length of Queen Victoria’s reign, allied to the fascination with their all...

Dorothy Kathleen Broster was born on 2nd September 1877 at Devon Lodge in Grassendale Park, Garston, Liverpool.At 16, the family moved to Cheltenham, where she attended Cheltenham Ladies' College and then on to St Hilda’s College, Oxford to read...