Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American novelist, Dark Romantic, and prolific short story writer. 'The Adventure of the German Student' is a ghost story set during the French Revolution. A young German student who is depressed and lonely has a recurrent dream about a beautiful female face. He begins to obsess over the features day and night. Then one evening as he is walking home through the Place de Grève, where the guillotine stands....

Leonard Merrick (1864 – 1939) was a well known English novelist, who was popular with the likes of such as H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie, G. K. Chesterton and William Dean Howells. Many of his stories have, over the years, been adapted to the screen. J. M. Barrie called Merrick the "novelist's novelist. "In "The Girl who was Tired of Love", Merrick tells the story of a wealthy widow whose beauty has faded with age, and who struggles to accept herself in the role of an old woman.

When a poor lad sets out to seek his fortune, he manages to acquire a magic turban which can make him invisible, a magic sword which is so strong it can cut through anything, and a magic carpet which will take him wherever he wants to go. Armed with these enchanted artefacts, he sets out to solve the mystery of where the princess disappears to every night....

William James Wintle (1861-1920) was a Welsh writer who later became Oblate for the Abbey of Caldey Island in Wales. It was there that he wrote a series of ghost tales for the entertainment of eight boys who attended there. Wintle wrote that the stories were originally told on Sunday nights while "crouching over a wood fire on a wind-swept island off the Western shore".

When Mademoiselle Aurelie's neighbour appears and asks her to take care of her four children in an emergency, she accepts the challenge very reluctantly. Mademoiselle Aurelie knows nothing about children and cares even less for them. But over the following weeks, the children become a part of her life... until the day when their mother reappears to reclaim them.

Dr Henry St Clair Whitehead ( 1882-1932) was an American clergyman and teacher who became famous for his creepy tales of magic and voodoo published in the magazine Weird Tales in the 1920s. 'The Shadows' is a tale from the West Indies about Mr. Stewart, an American who moves into an old house, locally known as Morris' House. Morris has been dead for several decades, but nobody seems keen to tell Mr. Stewart anything about the circumstances of Morris' death.

When the body of the popular Parisian perfume-shop assistant, Marie Roget, is found floating in the Seine, the whole of Paris is alive with rumours. But despite many clues and the offer of a substantial reward, the French police are unable to solve the mystery. The only solution is to call upon the super-sleuth Dupin.Poe's story, inspired by the unsolved murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers in New York, contains many parallels to that crime and was viewed at the time by many as a convincing solution to the American case.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884-1941) was a New Zealand-born English novelist famous for his skill at scene setting and vivid plots. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s and remains popular to this day. "The Snow" is a multilayered ghost story in which the phantom of a jealous and vindictive first wife seems to haunt the new young bride of her husband. As the cracks in their relationship widen, the malevolent ghost tightens her evil grip on the second wife.

William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937) was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the mystery and horror genres. Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, and took a degree in medicine at Leeds. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted much of his recuperation to writing short stories. Unwinding is a strange story based around a simple parlour game.

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American writer of outstanding short stories, known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings. The Last Leaf is the story of two female artists living together in Greenwich village. When one of them, Johnsy, becomes gravely ill with pneumonia, she becomes obsessed with counting the leaves on the ivy outside the window. As the weather gets colder and windier, the leaves fall one by one.

George Robert Gissing (1857-1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. The Salt of the Earth is the poignant story of an overly kind-hearted, generous and devoted clerk whose good nature and lack of self assertion invites the exploitation of all around him.

Melville Davisson Post (1869 – 1930) was an American author best known for his detective stories. 'The Problem of the Five Marks' tells the tale of a young American who arrives in Paris with secret instructions from his father for the head of the Paris Police. All he knows is that it pertains to the recent death of his Great Aunt.

A terrifying and macabre collection of anatomically inspired stories by the masters of gruseome fiction.

"Lucille. Are you poisoning me?" When the young husband asks this question of his beautiful young wife, a terrible drama is about to unfold in The Nightmare Room...a strange place where high emotions and dire tragedies are the norm.

A long underrated masterpiece of Kipling’s brilliant narration, They is a hauntingly beautiful tale of eternal love and loss. During a motor trip, the writer chances upon a country house which is visited by elusive and mysterious children, and meets the equally mysterious blind lady who lives there. Fascinated, enchanted, and yet somehow unsettled by the experience, he finds himself repeatedly drawn back to the house until finally the uncanny truth dawns.

Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories. The Tree of Death is a haunting story with something of a fairy tale character to it....but a fairy tale that turns into a gruesome horror story as the narrative unfolds. A wealthy young man falls in love with a young girl in his village, but she does not return his love.

Edith Nesbit is best known as the author of children's classics, such as The Railway Children. She was also a renowned author of ghost stories and othertales of terror, the macabre and the supernatural. In this collection of spine-chilling narratives, Nesbit presents us with a truly masterful set of tales of love which reaches out beyond the grave, ghosts, eerie incarnations, evil deeds and uncanny happenings. Perfect bedtime listening.... if you dare!

Venturers are those who seek excitement, unpredictability and chance in life. Forster is one such venturer, but finds his life in New York too boringly predictable. But when he meets Ives, the latter suggests they dine in a posh hotel together although neither has any money with them, and then toss a coin to see which of them will bear the consequences when they are unable to pay. The escapade turns out to have consequences which neither of them could have predicted.

Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American writer of weird fiction and horror stories. The Thing on the Roof is a gruesome tale of Tussman, a scholar and explorer who becomes obsessed with finding a hidden treasure which he believes to be buried beneath the altar of the ruined Temple of the Toad in the jungles of Honduras.

Mrs. Packletide is determined to shoot a tiger in order to get one up on her arch rival Loona Bimberton. In a comical and at times ironic sequence of events, Mrs. Packletide finds herself at the mercy of another rival, just when she had least expected it. Hector Hugh Munro at his most witty and ironic. A masterpiece!