Showing results by publisher "The Copyright Group" in All Categories

More than any other writer, Gilbert White (1720-1793) has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest, and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals’ behaviour in a unique manner. Here, a collection of his letters to Daines Barrington and Thomas Pennant.

Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, County Durham, the eldest of 12 children. The family's wealth was derived from sugar plantations manned by slaves in Jamaica, enabling them to also purchase a 500-acre estate in Herefordshire. This wealth allowed her to publish poems from an early age. However, by age 20, the family’s fortunes were in decline, though they were never below comfortable, after losing a lawsuit over their plantations.

Most famous for his tales of crime and deduction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also had a passion for suspense, the supernatural and the macabre as demonstrated in this collection of gothic short stories. This set contains the stories: The Horror of the Heights, The Lord of Chateau Noir, The Nightmare Room, The Ring of Thoth & The Brazilian Cat. So get ready for Doyle’s vivid spine tingling imagination to unnerve and thrill you in equal measure!

Jack London's tales of man's struggle against the forces of nature are universally popular. Best known for his novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang, London was also a prolific writer of short stories. This collection brings together four of his finest, all depicting the harshness of life in the frozen arctic wastes.

Subtitled the Secret Diary of a Victorian Gentleman, this book was banned for being sexually explicit and pornographic but following its publication has become known as an erotic masterpiece. No one really knows the identity of the pleasure seeking author or what in this diary is fact or fiction but Richard Johnson's reading makes a convincing and compelling case as the chronicler of this important document.

In this selection of some of Saki's best short stories, we enter a fictional world in which the Edwardian gently are pitched against the rude forces of nature and maiden aunts struggle unsuccessfully to contain the merciless antics of children in their charge. Saki is perhaps the ultimate master of writing complete stories in just a few pages and his sublime craftsmanship is accompanied by a wicked black humour.

A local hero, Dr Wayne Phillips, dies because the equipment that could save him is being used to help Bob Merrick, a spoiled rich man who has wrecked his speed boat. Dr Phillips gave selflessly and in secret to many people and causes, which Merrick now takes up too. However his efforts end in failure and also alienate Dr Phillips' widow, Helen, with whom he is besotted.

These four stories test Father Brown in many ways, creating headaches a plenty. However, Father Brown is nothing if not redoubtable and whilst Chesterton's stories are, in his own words, "very slight and improbable", his method is all his own. Bill Wallis captures perfectly the mood and tone of Father Brown in this collection.

Oscar Wilde’s only published novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray presents an intriguing idea: the main character, Dorian Gray, allows a painting to be subjected to the consequences of his actions and general aging, allowing him, in turn, to live a carefree and youthful life.

Fast paced and nightmarishly vivid, this greatest of Gothic tales propels the reader into the heart of darkness from its opening pages. Stoker increases the tension and mystery of his masterpiece by setting it in the form of different journal entries and letters by various characters. Only gradually does the full horrifying picture emerge: Dracula, far from being merely an eccentric foreigner, is a threat to all mankind. But this is not discovered until it is too late for some.

Our own Hollywood Stage presentation relives the tale of the guardsman and poet cursed with an enormous, bulbous, protuberance of a nose. His belief is that no woman can ever love him because of his physical appearance, and so he becomes instead applauded for his personal bravery and writing skills. However, the true apple of his eye is the beautiful Roxanne - but, of course, she loves another.

In the pantheon of great fictional horrors, Frankenstein's monster perhaps stands the tallest. Mary Shelley's acclaimed masterpiece, about the creation of a monster pieced together from graves, the gallows, and medical school scraps, has lost none of its chilling power to arouse both horror and compassion.

A story of love and broken dreams, Great Expectations is regarded by many as Dickens' finest achievement. He combines a gripping, melodramatic plot with a rich and memorable cast of characters, some comic, some tragic, some eccentric and some exemplary, like the generous-spirited Joe Gargery. The tale is told by Pip, an orphan of humble origins, who rises to be a gentleman through a mysterious benefactor. But his world is turned upside-down by a revelation, the nature of which he could never have guessed.

John Donne (1572 – 1631) was an English poet, preacher, and a major representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works are notable for their realistic and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires, and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially as compared to those of his contemporaries.

Many nations have produced outstanding poets who they would gladly have represent their Culture. But can any Nation say they have an equivalent of Robert Burns...The Ploughman Poet, The Bard Of Scotland? This one poet is indelibly linked and intertwined with the culture and people of Scotland. His life, loves, politics, verse and songs speak as them and for them. Politically he was an inspiration to both liberalism and socialism as well as a Scottish parliament.

Towards the end of the Second World War and Italy's release from Fascism and Mussolini three young British POW's are liberated. Their mission now is to join up with their comrades. The only hurdle is the 700 miles of German occupied territory between them and safety. This true story is a real adventure of nail biting escapes and escalating tension. Written by Tony Davies it is superbly read by William Franklyn. Schhh...you know who.

Edmond Dantès, an innocent young sailor, falls into despair when he is arrested on a false charge of treason and thrown into prison without a trial. He learns of his friends' betrayal from the Abbé Faria, an equally innocent prisoner, and plots his revenge following a daring, if nightmarish escape from the Chateau d'If. After becoming a wealthy man, he assumes the guise of the urbane Count of Monte-Cristo and begins to entrap his enemies one by one.

The School For Scandal is Sheridan's master work which wittily illustrates 18th century's aristocrats at play. With pinpoint accuracy Sheridan's characterisation of these decadent ruling classes give it a universal appeal as echoes of both the people and their antics are to be found in each generation.

Born in 1857 in Poland, Joseph Conrad became a British citizen just before he turned 30. In the intervening years he lost both parents, becoming an orphan at 11, being thereafter raised by an uncle, who let the boy go to Marseille, where he began to work on merchant ships. At age 36 his life turned from one of ships to one of literary pursuit. Conrad brought to English literature both a fresh layer of style and a deeper examination of the human psyche in a wealth of works. In this audiobook we dwell among his numerous short stories.

Most famous for his tales of crime and deduction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also had a passion for suspense, the supernatural, and the macabre, as demonstrated in this collection of gothic short stories. This set contains the stories 'The New Catacomb', 'Playing with Fire', 'The Terror of Blue John Gap', 'The Case of Lady Sannox', 'The Brown Hand', and 'The Los Amigos Fiasco'. So get ready for Doyle’s vivid, spine-tingling imagination to unnerve and thrill you in equal measure!