Phil Benson
The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena
As skeptics dismissed other-worldly phenomena as the stuff of legend, trickery or delusion, nineteenth-century 'occult science' set out to e…
That Lass o' Lowrie's
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born and grew up in Manchester, England, and emigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 16. Fo…
Hard Times (version 3), Locked Out and On Strike
Hard Times was Dickens's shortest novel and the only one to be set in the industrial north of England. A fast moving story with a typical ca…
The Experienced English Housekeeper
'Cut a large old hare in small pieces, and put it in a mug with three blades of mace, a little salt, two large onions, one red herring, six …
Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland
A fine adventure set in 10th-century England at a time when everyday life in north was made hazardous by wars and shifting alliances among S…
Karl Marx: An Essay
Born in Manchester in 1893, Harold Laski was a leading figure in the left-wing of British socialism in the first half of the 20th century. A…
Who Did It?
Following the dissolution of the New South Wales government, Henry Bryce is ready to take on the Labour Party for the seat of Balmain East. …
Short Stories (Household Words 1850-53)
Elizabeth Gaskell was a regular contributor to Charles Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, from 1850 through to 1853 In addition to …
The Haunted Woman
Isabel Loment is engaged to the affectionate, but unemotional, Marshall Stokes. House-hunting for her aunt, she comes to Runhill Court, an a…
The Spirit of Bambatse
A romance, a shipwreck and a hunt for buried Portuguese treasure in the Transvaal. All the ingredients of an imperial adventure that made Ha…
Nada the Lily
A classic tale of love and revenge set in the Zulu Kingdom of present-day KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. A work of fiction loosely woven aro…
In a North Country Village
M. E. Francis was born Mary E. Sweetman in Dublin and moved to Lancashire on her marriage to Francis Nicholas Blundell, of the Blundell fami…
The Masque of Anarchy
The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's response to the Peterloo massacre at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, where 18 died and hundreds were inju…
The Story of the Glittering Plain
In this early example of the modern high fantasy genre, Hallblithe, a warrior of the House of Raven, sets out in pursuit of the pirates who …
Clog Shop Chronicles
John Ackworth was the pen name of the Rev. Frederick R. Smith, a Methodist minister who was born in Snaith, Yorkshire, but spent much of his…
The Manchester Man
Jabez Clegg, the Manchester man, floats into this historical novel in 1799, carried downstream by the River Irk in flood. Jabez's rise to co…
The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician
Phra, a Phoenician merchant and warrior, settles in the south of England as husband to Blodwen, a British princess. Slain during the Roman i…
Criminal Manchester: Experiences of a Special Correspondent
Follow the Manchester Evening News 'special correspondent' and his guide - recently back from a 'seven stretch' - as they take you on a tour…
Early explorations in New South Wales: A collection
In the early days of the penal colony at Sydney, rumour was rife among the convicts of another colony beyond the Blue Mountains and perhaps …
The Cycle Industry, its origin, history and latest developments
From the velocipede to the motor cycle in twenty chapters. A short history of the British bicycle industry from its origins in a Coventry se…