From a modest street in Altrincham of not more than sixty-one houses, at least 158 men enlisted and fought in the First World War. The bravery and in some cases sacrifices of these men was recognised by King George V, who congratulated the street on its ‘patriotism and fighting spirit so prominently displayed’. Chapel Street had a strong military tradition dating back much further than 1914. Men who had fought in the Anglo-Boer War returned to the forces and they were joined by their sons,...

What if the thing standing between you and the life you want isn't your circumstances? What if it's the lens you're looking through?Fueled by Love is not a book written from the comfort of the other side. It was written from inside the storm, by a man living with an LVAD keeping his heart beating, waiting on a transplant that hasn't come, building anyway, refusing to quit, choosing love as fuel when everything else runs dry.In these pages Cliff "The Gift" Wallace takes you ...

First published in 1850, David Copperfield begins with avid the tragedy of David's brother dying when David is just a boy. After this episode, he is sent by his step-father to work in London for a wine merchant. When conditions worsen he decides to run away and embarks on a journey by foot from London to Dover. On his arrival, he finds his eccentric aunt, Betsey Trotwood who becomes his new guardian. Being witness to the formation of David's character is quite fascinating. David begins as ...

Lincoln's connection to black history may go much further than his role in slavery. In the 2001 book 'Black People and Their Place in History', historian Leroy Vaughn, alleges that Lincoln’s father was African American and his mother had Ethiopian ethnicity, both of which may have explained his “very dark skin and coarse hair.” The fact is his rivals campaigned using propaganda that depicted Lincoln as “Abraham Africanus the First,” an African man.It is claimed that Abraham Lincoln, who be...

Here is a charming collection of stories, mostly set in New England in the 1800s, that depict how Christmas was celebrated then.Seems that Christmas was not always a tree with dozens, if not hundreds, of gifts spread around the tree. Consumerism not being then what it is today, the gift might simply be a letter from a long-missing loved one, or simply the return through a blizzard of a husband who had left only hours ago on a mission of mercy. The relief of the anxiety of waiting f...

A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through...

Ben-Hur is a story of two very different heroes. Judah Ben-Hur, a prince of Jerusalem, is involved in an accident to the Roman procurator which is taken to be intentional. He is seized and sent to the fleet as a galley-slave, while his family is imprisoned and the family goods confiscated. When Ben-Hur saves the fleet captain from drowning after his ship is sunk in a fight with pirates, that officer adopts him as son and heir. With Roman training, Ben-Hur distinguishes himself in the arena...

The Narrow Corner is a novel by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, published by William Heinemann in 1932. A quote from Meditations, iii 10, by Marcus Aurelius, introduces the work: "Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells." In the story, set "a good many years ago" in what is now Indonesia, a young Australian, cruising the islands after his involvement in a murder in Sydney, has a passionate affair on an island which causes a further t...

One of the great Victorian novels by an author at the height of his powers, Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of the calculating, upwardly-mobile Becky Sharp and her gentle, good-hearted friend Amelia Sedley as they leave their boarding school and embark upon their lives in Vanity Fair the social-climbing, wealth-obsessed world of Regency England in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. William Makepeace Thackeray was a British novelist, author, and illustrator. He is known for his satirical wor...

Candide is characterized by its tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical, and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious coming-of-age narrative, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is bitter and matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contend...

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th century. Beowulf, a hero o...

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th century. Beowulf, a hero o...