By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The English novelist, poet, essayist, and Christian apologist Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) is revered by many readers – and fellow writers – for his wit, his insight into human nature, and his brilliant storytelling. His Father Brown stories are often compared with Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, while he remains one of the most quotable English writers of the last century or so.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The writer A. M. Burrage once claimed that he wished ‘to give the reader a pleasant shudder, in the hope that he will take a lighted candle to bed with him’. But in fact, his ghost stories – a selection of which was published in a handsome edition by the British Library in 2022 – often succeed in doing far more than this.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘A Vision of Judgment’ was first published in Butterfly in September 1899. The tale is a light and humorous piece about the Day of Judgment, when all of humankind – including the dead – are summoned to appear before God and be judged for their sins and their good deeds.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese-American poet who is best-known for one book of poetry: The Prophet. This 1923 book is one of the bestselling books of all time: indeed, Gibran is usually named as one of the three biggest-selling poets of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu. Born … Read more
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Popular Mechanics’ is one of Raymond Carver’s shortest stories, but although it is sometimes known by the alternative title ‘Little Things’, there is nothing ‘little’ about this tale of filial breakdown and domestic unhappiness.