David Shaw-Parker

William Edward Norris was born on the 18th November 1847, the son of Sir William Norris, the Chief Justice of Ceylon.Norris was educated at Eton before studying law and being called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1874.However, he never practiced...

‘A dime a dozen’ as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English ‘cheap as chips’ but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit ‘A Rhyme a Dozen’ as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded...

‘A dime a dozen’ as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English ‘cheap as chips’ but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit ‘A Rhyme a Dozen’ as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded...

‘A dime a dozen’ as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English ‘cheap as chips’ but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit ‘A Rhyme a Dozen’ as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded...

Geoffrey Bache Smith was born in Staffordshire on 18th October 1894.He attended King Edward’s School, Birmingham at the same time as J.R.R. Tolkien, where they founded the literary “Tea Cup and Barovian Society”.Geoffrey was commissioned as a...

Alexander Kuprin was born in Narovchat, Penza in Russia on 7th September 1870.At 3 his Father died and he and mother moved to Moscow. By 10 he was enrolled at the Second Moscow Military High School and there his interest in literature began. The...

Vernon Lee was born Violet Paget on 4th October 1856 in Boulogne, France to intellectual expatriate British parents.In common with several other very talented literary women of the day she felt it necessary to publish under a masculine pseudonym in...

François-Anatole Thibault was born on the 16th April 1844 in Paris, France, the son of a bookseller and bibliophile.He studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduating joined his father in the bookstore, which...

Mary Frances Butts was born on 13th December 1890 in Poole, Dorset.Her early years were spent at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour. Sadly in 1905 her father died, and she was sent for boarding at St Leonard's school for girls...

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins was born on 9th February 1863 in Clapton, London.He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford. Hope trained as a lawyer and barrister and was called to the Bar by the Middle...

Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number.Such is its popularity that...

Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number.Such is its popularity that...

Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number.Such is its popularity that...

Barry Eric Odell Pain was born at 3 Sydney Street in Cambridge on 28th September 1864. He was one of 4 children.He was educated at Sedbergh School and then Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he read classics and contributed to and edited...

Six has always been a number we group things around – Six of the best, six of one half a dozen of another, six feet under, six pack, six degrees of separation and a sixth sense are but a few of the ways we use this number.Such is its popularity that...

Cambridge University is esteemed as one of the great learning centres of the world, and has been for many centuries.Whatever its gravitas as a seat of learning it should come as no surprise that Cambridge has a malevolent and dark side. Within the...

Young, attractive and wealthy, Alice Vavasor is a woman in the prime of her life. And yet one question torments her: ‘What should a woman do with her life?’ Torn between the kind but dull Mr Grey and her dangerous and exciting cousin George, she is...

‘The End of the World is Nigh’ has been seen, heard and quoted ad infinitum all of our lives. In the comfort zone of our own arrogance and the resources that we humans have at our disposal it seems we are both inviolable and invincible. All is safe....

Christmas may come but once a year but evil, intrigue and malevolence are everyday events.Within this volume Christmas is a time when these dark forces form and coalesce to take life and liberty from people who may and who may not deserve the spin of...

This collection brings together 5 of Lawrence's short stories from 1907-13 and range across all his major early styles and themes; portraying his distinctive vision or relations between men and woman as well as social and economic life and human...

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...

Science, better diet, advanced medicines are all part of a process that in the modern age keep most of us going to a ripe old age.In previous times some diseases could only be slowed and not defeated. There toil of relentless attack on our physical...

Dr Thorne, the third novel in Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire, sees the author steer away from the church politics of the first two novels and move towards the scandals and prejudice of the upper tiers of Victorian era aristocracies.It...

Edward Frederic Benson was born in Berkshire, England on 24th July 1867.Educated at Marlborough and Kings College Cambridge he began his career as a writer at an early age and was published whilst still studying.Benson was also a gifted athlete and...