Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

'The Old Ancient Ship' is a mysterious and ghostly sea story. A strange old mariner, Bill Blood, has hitched a ride on a boat travelling to a remote set of islands in the Pacific. When they make a forced stop at one island to repair a leak in the ship, the crew are eager to go aboard the deserted island and explore. Bill Blood goes with them and leads them to an ancient ship full of skeletons lying in the middle of the tropical forest and overgrown with creepers and foliage. Blood tells them the peculiar and terrible tale of the ancient vessel and those who died in her....

John Griffith 'Jack' London (1876 - 1916) was a popular American novelist, journalist and social activist. 'In Yeddo Bay' is the adventure of a young sailor who has lost his purse while ashore in a Japanese port. How is he to get back to his ship without the 'ten sen' required as advance payment by the sampan men?

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812 - 1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folk tales. The Lads who met the Trolls in the Hedale Wood is one such folk story. Two teenage lads are stranded in the Hedale Wood overnight. Before long they hear heavy footsteps and sniffing. Three enormous trolls are on the scent of human flesh...how can they manage to escape?

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer of 957 short stories and over 170 novels. He is widely recognised as one of the most prolific writers of his age. 'The Man with the Canine Teeth' is a classic murder mystery. A mild-mannered scientist has been found, apparently strangled to death in his laboratory overnight. But there are some strange circumstances. Where are the old man's spectacles? And why is he wearing thick gloves?

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was a prolific American poet, novelist and short story writer. He is recognised by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. 'The Open Boat' is probably Stephen Crane's best known and most admired story. It tells the adventure of four sailors, the captain, the oiler, the cook and the correspondent, who are sole survivors of a shipwreck at sea in a small rowing boat off the coast of Florida.

'Make Westing' is a story of a ship, the Mary Rogers, struggling to round Cape Horn in adverse weather. The way to round the Horn is always to 'make westing'. As time goes on, Captain Dan Cullen becomes more and more obsessed with making westing at all costs. When a sailor accidently falls overboard, he refuses to stop and rescue the drowning man. The ship's only passenger, Mr George Dorety, is horrified by this and determines to see justice done.

'The Table Under the Tree' is the story of a mysterious murder which takes place one evening on a crowded restaurant terrace in France. The moon disappears behind a cloud, and in the momentary darkness a cry rings out.

Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was one of France's finest writers of short stories. 'The Pope's Mule' is the amusing story of an animal which waited patiently for seven years to repay a man who mistreated her.

Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne (1866-1944) was a British writer of popular adventure fiction and fantastic literature. Here we present five of his best and most gripping adventure stories.

Great Animal Stories, featuring 25 beastly tales.

'The Kidnapping of Phil Altamore' is a humorous story of a young man who has inadvertently made an ill-advised marriage proposal to a chorus girl in Paris. When the girl appears in London, he has more or less forgotten about the obligation...but his willingness to go through with the marriage induces close family friend and busybody Mrs. Jack Ormesby to save him from this dreadful fate by kidnapping him and smuggling him to Russia.

'Fortunes Adrift' is the story of a small trading steamer than comes across a broken down passenger liner off the coast of Africa just as a hurricane is bearing down on the two vessels. Never one to miss a commercial opportunity, the captain of the steamer strikes a deal. For £100,000, to be paid by the wealthy cruise passengers, he will attempt to tow the liner to safety. But will their groaning engines hold? And if not...will they even survive the storm?

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer best known for his fictional priest-detective, Father Brown. In 'The Mistake of the Machine', Father Brown pits himself against an early polygraph device to solve a highly puzzling crime.

Cap'n Jollyfax, a retired sea captain, has a brass cannon which he likes to fire on special occasions. New Year, Waterloo day, the anniversary of Nelson's funeral, Trafalgar day, everyone's birthdays, weddings, christenings and every other occasion. His neighbour, the widow Mrs Billing, has a great dislike for the gun. So when Cap'n Jollyfax and Mrs Billing become engaged to be married it is perhaps not surprising that there is a dispute about the future of the gun...a dispute with hilarious consequences.

"The Outsider" is one of Lovecraft's earliest and creepiest stories. A man exists alone in a mysterious dark castle, with no memory of how or why he is there. One day he decides to climb the highest tower in the hope of seeing the sky...and in doing so briefly learns the terrible, ghastly, unbearable truth....

'The Young Bull' is the story of a farmer on the Welsh border who is trapped in a hostile and combative marriage which is nonetheless charged with suppressed sexual tension. An episode where he is forced to do battle with his enraged bull and his wife steps into the fray to help serves both as an allegory of his marriage and the catalyst to breaking the barrier between the couple.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. 'Little Tobrah' is a disturbing murder story set in India. The eight-year-old Tobrah stands accused of the murder of his younger blind sister. The evidence is purely circumstantial...and then he recounts his own tale of what happened.

'The Green Door' is a classic O. Henry tale. A young adventurer, strolling one evening along Broadway, is handed a card by a man advertising a dentist's services. But when he inspects the card he discovers that the card given to him has on it only three words: 'The Green Door'.

Andrew Soutar (1879 - 1941) was a British author and journalist best known for his novels and short stories. The Jade Earrings is the story of an elderly antiques collector with a young and pretty wife, Rosetta. One day he presents her with a pair of jade earrings with a legend attached to them. It is said that any faithful wife who wears them will become unfaithful.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842 - circa 1914) was an American author, journalist, short story writer and satirist who disappeared in 1913 under mysterious circumstances and was never seen again. "John Bartine's Watch" is the strange and terrifying tale of an evening guest who reacts with horror when his host asks him the time. But why is John Bartine so reluctant to look at his own watch?