George MacDonald was born on December 10th 1824 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.The MacDonald family had proud and long historical roots. His father, was a farmer, was a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered in the infamous massacre of 1692 when the Campbells set upon the MacDonalds.George grew up with the Congregational Church, with its atmosphere of Calvinism to which George never really attached himself. A story often told is that the young George on ...

The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is the Scottish author John Galt.

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov was born on 28th March 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.Better known as Maxim Gorky he was orphaned at 11 and ran away from home at 12. At 19 he had already attempted suicide and thereafter travelled, by foot, across the Russian Empire for 5 years.His first book ‘Essays & Stories’ in 1898 was a sensation and so began a long career as an author of short stories, novels and plays. Gorky saw writing as a moral and political act that would help to chan...

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on 29th January 1860 in Taganrog, on the south coast of Russia.His family life was difficult; his father was strict and over-bearing but his mother was a passionate story-teller, a subject Chekhov warmed to. As he later said; ‘our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother’.At school Chekhov was distinctly average. At 16 his father mis-managed his finances and was declared bankrupt. His family fled to Moscow. Chekhov remain...

The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is Gabriela Cunninghame Graham.

The Prequel to a time-travel historical fantasy series powered by a mysterious 18th century cello that bridges the divide of time between two passionate women who live for their music and find their lives and loves forever intertwined.A kingdom is lost. A song is born.When the Union with England is accepted by the Scottish Parliament on 16 January 1707, many swear they will never accept the loss of their fiercely independent nation. The ones who seek to pre...

James Thomson was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland on the 23rd November 1834.At the age of 8 his sister died and his father suffered a stroke. Thomson was now sent south to be raised in a London orphanage, the Royal Caledonian Asylum on Chalk near Holloway. Shortly thereafter he was given the news that his mother had also now died. It was a bleak beginning to the next chapters of his life and would undoubtedly go a long way towards shaping both his character and his future.Th...

Discover the groundbreaking liturgical and sacramental scholarship of Marie-Dominique Chenu.Why is Chenu’s scholarship still relevant today? Like his slightly younger confrere Yves Congar, the French Dominican Marie-Dominique Chenu (1895–1990) was an important visionary of Catholic theology in the twentieth century. Long before scholars like Louis-Marie Chauvet, Chenu elaborated on the essential symbolic nature of sacramental mediation, on the operationality of gra...

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on 26th May 1799 in Moscow into a family of Russian nobility.Raised by nursemaids and French tutors in French he learnt Russian only via the household staff.He graduated from the prestigious Imperial Lyceum, near St Petersburg and plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of what was then the capital of the Russian Empire.In 1820, he published his first long poem, ‘Ruslan and Ludmila’, with much controvers...

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...

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...

These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language.Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind. These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical de...