R. James need no introduction. They are widely considered the very best classical supernatural tales ever committed to paper, and a testimony to their quality and universal appeal is the fact that James's Collected Ghost Stories has remained in print since its first publication in 1931. James's ghost stories are a towering achievement, and they continue to dominate the genre more than a century after they first began to appear.Ash-Tree Press has published collections by many of the writers who followed James and sought to emulate him, and is now proud to have published A Pleasing Terror, which collects all of M. R. James's writings on the supernatural. In addition to the thirty-three stories from Collected Ghost Stories, this volume includes a further three stories, seven story drafts left amongst his papers, all of his introductions and prefaces to his various collections, and his article 'Stories I Have Tried to Write'. In addition, there are the texts of twelve medieval ghost stories discovered and published by James, all of his articles about the ghost story, and his writings on J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

    This selection offers a timely retrospective of the contemporary poetry of Simon Armitage, and is a perfect introduction to his work.

    It shows how to use story telling as a therapeutic tool with children and how to make an effective response when a child tells a story to you. It is an essential accompaniment to the "Helping Children with Feelings" series and covers issues such as: Why story telling is such a good way of helping children with their feelings? What resources you may need in a story-telling session? How to construct your own therapeutic story for a child? What to do when children tell stories to you? Things to do and say when working with a child's story.

    Illustrated with more than 100 photographs and boasting contributions from a team of internationally renowned scholars (including such noted Shakespeare authorities as Helen Vendler, Park Honan, and Jonathan Bate), the Companion has more than 3,000 entries that offer succinct, stimulating, and authoritative commentary on Shakespeare's life and times, his plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries. All Shakespeare's plays--from As You Like It and All's Well that Ends Well to King Lear and Hamlet--are covered in major articles. There are concise descriptions of allusions in Shakespeare (Ajax, Agamemnon), well-known critics (Samuel Johnson, John Dryden), great Shakespearian actors (Richard Burbage, Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh), characters in the plays (Mercutio, Ophelia), figures of speech (metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron), and much more. Longer articles explore topics such as Shakespeare's birthplace, censorship, the Chamberlain's Men, film, and Shakespeare's reception in such countries as China, Italy, and the United States. Bringing its readers up to date not only with the latest in Shakespearian scholarship and controversy but with the plays' most recent incarnations on stage, film, and in international popular culture, this is the perfect companion to Shakespeare's works, covering everything from Aaron to Zeffirelli, and from Shakespeare in schools to Shakespeare in Love.

    This new edition of four works show how Agatha Christie's plays are as compulsive as her novels, their colourful characters and ingenious plots providing yet more evidence of her mastery of the detective thriller. The Mousetrap A homicidal maniac terrorizes a group of snowbound guests to the refrain of 'Three Blind Mice'! And Then There Were None Ten guilty people, brought together on an island in mysterious circumstances, await their sentence! Appointment With Death The suffocating heat of an exotic Middle-Eastern setting provides a backdrop for murder! The Hollow A set of friends convene at a country home where their convoluted relationships mean that any one of them could be a murderer!

    While course books aimed at young learners are appearing on the market, there is scant theoretical reference in the teacher education literature. Teaching Languages to Young Learners is one of the few to develop readers' understanding of what happens in classrooms where children are being taught a foreign language. It will offer teachers and trainers a coherent theoretical framework to structure thinking about children's language learning. It gives practical advice on how to analyse and evaluate classroom activities, language use and language development. Examples from classrooms in Europe and Asia will help bring alive the realities of working with young learners of English.

    Barnes playfully combines a literary detective story with a character study of its detective, embedded in a brilliant riff on literary genius. A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters is a mix of fictional and historical narratives of voyage and discovery—ranging from a woodworm's perspective on Noah's ark to a survivor from the sinking of the Titanic—that question our ideas of history.

    Hartley was also a much admired adept of the macabre short story. Hartley was no dilettante in the genre: he was well-versed in its long and distinguished tradition, and these carefully crafted tales represent some of the most successful attempts to carry the ghost story into the twentieth century. The Collected Macabre Stories includes thirty-seven of Hartley's best tales, ranging from the well-known, traditional ghost stories 'The Cotillon' and 'Feet Foremost', through the dark humour of 'The Travelling Grave' and 'The Killing Bottle' to the Aickmanesque 'The Pylon'. These encompass a wide range of settings, from English Country Houses to Venetian Palaces. Two accomplished fantasies, 'Conrad and the Dragon' and 'The Crossways' display Hartley's range and versatility. Taken as a whole, the collection represents one of the most impressive achievements of twentieth-century macabre fiction.Contents: From the Introduction to Lady Cynthia Asquith’s Third Ghost Book/ A Visitor from Down Under/ Podolo/ Three, or Four, for Dinner/ The Travelling Grave/ Feet Foremost/ The Cotillon/ A Change of Ownership/ The Thought/ Conrad and the Dragon/ The Island/ Night Fears/ The Killing Bottle/ A Summons/ W.S./ The Two Vaynes/ Monkshood Manor/ Two for the River/ Someone in the Lift/ The Face/ The Corner Cupboard/ The Waits/ The Pampas Clump/ The Crossways/ Per Far L’Amore/ Interference/ The Pylon/ Mrs Carteret Receives/ Fall in at the Double/ Paradise Paddock/ Roman Charity/ Pains and Pleasures/ Please Do Not Touch/ Home Sweet Home/ The Shadow on the Wall/ The Sound of Voices/ Mrs G. G./ The Stain on the Chair

    A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. The books in the series will all follow the same structure:a biography of the novelist, including other works, influences, and, in some cases, an interview; a full-length study of the novel, drawing out the most important themes and ideas; a summary of how the novel was received upon publication; a summary of how the novel has performed since publication, including film or TV adaptations, literary prizes, etc.; a wide range of suggestions for further reading, including websites and discussion forums; and a list of questions for reading groups to discuss.

    Now this extravagant and wonderfully discerning anthology unfurls the full diversity of Indian literature from the 1850s to the present, presenting today’s brightest talents in the company of their distinguished forbearers and likely heirs. The thirty-eight authors collected by novelist Amit Chaudhuri write not only in English but also in Hindi, Bengali, and Urdu. They include Rabindranath Tagore, arguably the first international literary celebrity, chronicling the wistful relationship between a village postal inspector and a servant girl, and Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee, represented by an excerpt from his classic novel about an impoverished Bengali childhood, Pather Panchali. Here, too, are selections from Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, R. K. Narayan’s The English Teacher, and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children alongside a high-spirited nonsense tale, a drily funny account of a pre-Partition Muslim girlhood, and a Bombay policier as gripping as anything by Ed McBain. Never before has so much of the subcontinent’s writing been made available in a single volume.

    The anthology combines classic essays of great instructional value together with the most frequently anthologized essays of recent note by today's most highly regarded writers. The selections exhibit a broad range of diversity in subject matter and authorship. All essays have been selected for their utility as both models for writing and for their usefulness as springboards for independent writing. An introductory section informs readers about the qualities of the essay form and offers instruction on how to read essays critically and use the writing process to develop their own essays. For those interested in learning about reading, writing and critical thinking by studying examples of great writing.

    The contributors focus on texts most commonly read in introductory Old English courses while also engaging with larger issues of Anglo-Saxon history, culture, and scholarship. Their approaches vary widely, encompassing disciplines from linguistics to psychoanalysis.In an appealing introduction to the book, R. M. Liuzza presents an overview of Old English studies, the history of the scholarship, and major critical themes in the field. For both newcomers and more advanced scholars of Old English, these essays will provoke discussion, answer questions, provide background, and inspire an appreciation for the complexity and energy of Anglo-Saxon studies.

    He discovers an incriminating videotape of Agent Z activities and blackmails Ben into becoming his slave.Meanwhile, Ben, Jenks and Barney embark on their first film, entitled Invasion of the Killer Bananas, in which T.J. unwittingly has a starring role. When T.J. disappears, however, the film points towards Ben, Jenks and Barney as murder suspects!In an attempt to clear their names, the boys use all the cunning of Agent Z to try and lure T.J. home and into the hands of the police . . .Mark Haddon has a sharp understanding of what makes children tick, and they will delight in the ever more daring, ever more hilarious missions of Agent Z and his three creators.

    After a crash training course (the documents for which are reproduced here), he was appointed a Talks Producer responsible for features, talks and commentaries on the war, to be broadcast to India. He wrote at least 220 news commentaries for, and broadcast to, India and occupied Malaya and Indonesia, of which Orwell read fifty-six.. This volume shows that formal censorship was not as great a problem as has been supposed, though it obviously occurred and Orwell's brushes with censors are shown in detail.Along with Volumes 14 and 15 of the Complete Works, Volume 13 shows the enormous efforts he made to disseminate culture rather than crude propaganda. It is in this volume that the origins of 'Room 101' are to be found; it has examples of his first 'courses' for Indian university student - the forerunner of the Open University; the first issue of his broadcast poetry magazine, 'Voice', and a nubmer of his own broadcasts, including 'The Re-discovery of Europe'. He continued to review, to write essays, and to contribute to Partisan Review and he was still active in the Home Guard.

    In fourteen engaging, beautifully written chapters, Wolosky explores in depth how poetry does what it does while offering brilliant readings of some of the finest lyric poetry in the English and American traditions. Both readers new to poetry and poetry veterans will be moved and enlightened as Wolosky interprets work by William Shakespeare, John Donne, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, and others. The book includes a superb two-chapter discussion of the sonnet's form and history, and represents the first poetry guide to introduce gender as a basic element of analysis.In contrast to many existing guides, which focus on selected formal aspects like metrics or present definitions and examples in a handbook format, The Art of Poetry covers the full landscape of poetry's subtle art while showing readers how to comprehend a poetic text in all its dimensions. Other special features include Wolosky's consideration of historical background for the developments she discusses, and the way her book is designed to acquaint or reacquaint readers with the core of the lyric tradition in English.Lively, accessible, and original, The Art of Poetry will be a rich source of inspiration for students, general readers, and those who teach poetry.

    -- For beginner readers - phonics-based text is cleverly blended with a funny story-- Includes phonics guide for parents...and some pages have fold-out flaps!

    Originally conceived for BBC broadcast and produced by the world's foremost creators of radio entertainment, these lavish productions meld a full cast with stirring music and sound effects to bring these magnificent Christie classics to life.

    We can do the experiment,' says your assistant Joe. You are the famous scientist Mary Durie working in a laboratory in Alaska. When you discover something very new and valuable, other people want to try to steal your idea - can you stop them before they escape?

    Beyond the critical approach, this brilliant and unsettling story can also be enjoyed simply on its own as a well-written tale of suspense and surprise.

    His major works were long visionary poems including, Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound and the unfinished The Triumph of Life. Shelley was a strong advocate for social justice for the 'lower classes'. He witnessed many of the mistreatments occurring in the domestication and slaughtering of animals and he became a fighter for the rights of all living things. This collection contains On Love, On Life in a Future State, On the Punishment of Death Speculations, On Metaphysics Speculations, On Morals on the Literature, the Arts and the Manners of the Athenians, On the Symposium, or Preface to the Banquet of Plato, and A Defence of Poetry.

    Hearing poetry spoken - as it was originally intended to be heard - adds dramatically to your understanding and appreciation of the form. Be moved, amused, and awed by these expert interpretations of even the most familiar poems.Revisit classics through the 1850s such as:"Sonnet 18 (Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day)" by William Shakespeare"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe"Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeOther poets included in this collection are: Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Omar Khayyam, Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, John Milton, Anne Bradstreet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Blake, Robert Burns, John Greenleaf Whittier, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emily Bronte, and Robert Browning.This is Volume 1 of The Best Poems of All Time. Don't miss Volume 2.

    In 1971 his life changed with the production of Sleuth. He got to know many actors, including Lawrence Olivier, and worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie.