In a letter to her parents, written in Rome in the summer of 1944, Maria Corelli tells of her life on the run in Italy during the Second World War. As the Germans approach, she and her husband risk th
Nurse Wolf is Manhattan's Queen of Pain - she gives pleasure by inflicting it. Neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks is her opposite, a defuser of pain. Yet the dominatrix and the doctor operate in similar terr
In 1908, Englishman Sydney Gibbes was appointed tutor to the children of Tsar Nicholas II, and over the next10 years, he became deeply attached to the Imperial family—and they to him. Her
Everyone has heard of plays like Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. But why do we know so little about the man who wrote them? Who exactly was William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon, and why
This is the story of a rector's daughter who triumphed over unrequited love and family tragedy to take her place as one of the world's most popular writers. Ages 10+.
November 1854, Scutari: a slim, upper-class Englishwoman disembarks ship, staggering from seasickness. Her name is Florence Nightingale, and she is on a mission to save the thousands of soldiers injur
Arthur Hugh Clough is the great undiscovered genius of Victorian literature. The golden hope of his generation at Rugby and Oxford, he battled against the orthodoxies of his time to produce some of th
Kate Chisholm was 24 when she was first hospitalized with anorexia nervosa. Journeying back into the mindset of her 24-year-old self, Kate seeks to relive the experience of anorexia and, with the help
Ned Kelly, born into a large family of Irish settlers in Australia, grew up bad. Cool and defiant, he graduated from horse-stealing, to cattle-thieving to 'robbery under arms'. Then, at 23, he shot th
Whilst visiting Venice in 1911 Thomas Mann's eye was drawn to a young sailor-suited boy of almost supernatural beauty, and was inspired to write "Death in Venice". This is a biography of that boy, who
It is 1921, and post-revolutionary Russia is being torn apart by civil war. Out of the wreckage rises a crazy, eagle-eyed Baron, who plans to conquer the largest empire the world has ever known... Whe
"Threads of Hope" is for anyone whose life has been touched by depression; either to read through and linger over, or just to dip into when the moment is right. People from all walks of life share the
The year is 1770, the sun is shining and they're doing good business at the Three Hats Inn. This is where the best trick riders perform. Top of the bill today is St-Major Philip Astley, a colossal fig
Young Charles Dickens's happy childhood came to a sudden end when his father was jailed for debt and, aged 12, he was sent to work in a factory making shoe polish. By his mid-twenties, he was on the v
Victoria was just 18 years old when she was crowned Queen in 1837 - a tiny figure, with a will of iron. Never was there so queenly a queen. She made Britain great and the people loved her for it. In 1
