Showing results by narrator "Ant Richards" in All Categories

People like an open fire, if they can be bothered with all the work it entails - cleaning out the grate, scrunching up newspaper, laying the kindling, fetching in the fuel. All that effort is worth it to sit and watch the flames dancing, to feel the real heat warm you through.

School and first went into the business, my grandfather, who had retired by then, told me about how chimney sweeps are regarded as good luck, and maybe more than that to some of the female customers, but he said that I should always treat everyone with respect.

The 'Wetland Watch' had been widely advertised, so Jack was surprised when only four people came. He had spent the morning sweeping out the hide before going on his rounds and couldn't help but feel a small stab of disappointment at the low turn-out.

Beth wrapped the bread and cheese back in their papers and tied the parcel into her bundle. It was proper harvest weather; the afternoon sun roasting, the sky a faultless blue.

When young Lucian Miller visits the house of a friend it is everything he had long fantasised about; decay and grandeur, lofty rooms, dark red shadows and dust. The evening, however, is a disaster, and Lucian finds himself apparently alone with the sophisticated but troubled Miranda Honeyman. They shut all of the doors in an attempt to keep their problems out, but it soon becomes apparent that someone else may have access to the house. On the threshold of adulthood, in a heightening atmosphere of sexual uncertainty and violence, Lucian tries to make sense of what is happening around him.

George Cupples (2 August 1822 - 17 October 1891) was a Scottish journalist and a writer, who became famous at the end of 19th century for his maritime novels. A TORNADO AT SEA: What was my horror when I saw the quicksilver had sunk so far below the mark, probably fixed there that morning, as to be almost shrunk in the ball! Whatever the merchant service might know about the instrument in those days, the African coast was the place to teach its right use to us in the old Iris.

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 - September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries created a unique form of American literature. AMONG THE ICE FLOES: "Keep her a good full, Mr. Hazard," said Roswell, as he was leaving the deck to take the first sleep in which he had indulged for four-and-twenty hours, "and let her go through the water. We are behind our time, and must keep in motion.

You've been visiting for some time and I've made very little effort to communicate. I have nothing against you - you are well turned out in your skirt and twin-set, your hair in its careful bun. I cannot fault your appearance; you seem the right sort: clean, punctual, intelligent. Even your persistence is commendable.

A mutual acquaintance of ours suggested I should write to you. She is a volunteer librarian in your establishment whom you will know. She took special note of you because you borrow more books than any other inmate, and it occurred to her that you might appreciate a correspondent who had time to write you a proper letter.

Jean Ingelow (17 March 1820 - 20 July 1897) was an English poet and novelist, who gained sudden fame in 1863. A SHIP ON FIRE AT SEA: As she spoke two strange objects came into my view. One was a great pale moon, sickly and white, hanging and seeming to brood over the horizon; the other, which looked about the same size, was red and seemed to lie close at her side. It was not round, but looked blotted and blurred in the mist. Could it be a meteor?

William Clark Russell (24 February 1844 - 8 November 1911) was an English writer best known for his nautical novels. At the age of 13 Russell joined the United Kingdom's Merchant Navy, serving for eight years. A GALE OF WIND: At midnight Holdsworth came on deck to relieve the second mate. A man out of the port watch came to the wheel, and stood yawning, scarcely awake. The night was dark, a hazy atmosphere, through which the stars gleamed sparely, and the sea like ebony.

Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 - 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote abundantly in an exceptional variety of genres. A STRUGGLE WITH A DEVIL FISH: The sea was growing calmer. But there was still a heavy swell, which made his departure, for the present at least, impossible. The day, too, was far advanced.

Equality at Sea: The next morning Jack Easy would have forgotten all about his engagement with the captain, had it not been for the waiter, who thought that after the reception which our hero had given the first lieutenant, it would be just as well that he should not be disrespectful to the captain.

Each of the stories that make up "Damage" represent a new take on the theme of difference and strangeness in human life. There are elements of traditional horror, fantasy and the supernatural, but also of beauty, humour, compassion and love. "Damage" explores the fragility of life and love and how they can sometimes survive against the odds, despite the damage that is done to them.

Rosalie Parker runs the independent UK publishing house Tartarus Press with R. B. Russell. Her previous collections include "The Old Knowledge" (Swan River Press 2010) and "Damage" (PS Publishing 2016). "In the Garden" was selected for Best New Horror 21 (2010), and "Random Flight" for Best British Horror 2015. Rosalie lives in Coverdale, North Yorkshire, the magnificent landscape of which inspires and sometimes provides the settings for her writing. "Homecraft": The cooker looked old, almost an antique.

Ships at anchor reared their tall masts, here and there; and the broad stream was enlivened and colored by junks and boats of all sizes and vivid hues, propelled on the screw principle by a great scull at the stern, with projecting handles for the crew to work; and at times a gorgeous mandarin boat, with two great glaring eyes set in the bows, came flying, rowed with forty paddles by an armed crew, whose shields hung on the gunwale and flashed fire in the sunbeams.

Herman Melville August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are "Moby-Dick" (1851); "Typee" (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and "Billy Budd", Sailor, a posthumously published novella. Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival, and Moby-Dick grew to be considered one of the great American novels.

Captain Frederick Marryat (10 July 1792 - 9 August 1848) was a Royal Navy officer, a novelist, and an acquaintance of Charles Dickens. He is noted today as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel "Mr Midshipman Easy" (1836). He is remembered also for his children's novel "The Children of the New Forest" (1847), and for a widely used system of maritime flag signalling known as Marryat's Code. "The Club-Hauling of The Diomede": We continued our cruise along the coast, until we had run down into the Bay of Arcason.