All Vanilia Solveig wants is to be just a regular, ordinary kid. Still, by the time her 12th birthday approaches, her magical powers begin to emerge and it becomes clear, to her consternation she is far from ordinary.In fact, she is really, quite scarily e-x-t-r-a-o-r-d-i-n-a-r-y!Drawing on themes from Norse folklore, Of the Wind, the Sea and the House of Strength takes the reader on a magical journey from the islands of Orkney to the realms of fantasy.

The name L T Meade, a pseudonym for Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, rarely brings a sign of recognition.Although she wrote mainly for young girls she also wrote across many genres including sensational, religious, historical, adventure and romances. In all, her credits add up to over 300 titles.Born in Brandon, County Cork in Ireland in 1844 she began her prolific career as a writer when she was a mere 17 years of age and was first published in 1872.In 1879 she mar...

Written in two parts in an accessible, conversational style, this book is more than a ‘how-to’ primer on the cue-script method: how Shakespeare and his actors staged his plays with minimal to no full company rehearsal. In Part 2, the author (a professional actor, director and academic researcher) expands upon how she has used this approach to Shakespeare herself and, as a result, made some ground-breaking discoveries.For those listeners who may be unfamiliar with cue-scripts, and t...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...

The name L T Meade, a pseudonym for Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, rarely brings a sign of recognition.Although she wrote mainly for young girls she also wrote across many genres including sensational, religious, historical, adventure and romances. In all, her credits add up to over 300 titles.Born in Brandon, County Cork in Ireland in 1844 she began her prolific career as a writer when she was a mere 17 years of age and was first published in 1872.In 1879 she mar...

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex.Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunit...