Precious Bane was written by Mary Webb and first published in 1924. Narrated by the central character Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a harelip. Only the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, perceives her inner beauty but Prue cannot believe herself worthy of him. Prue is wrongly accused of murder and only one man can save her and take her away to the happiness she believes she can never possess because of her harelip. A forgotten classic set in rural Shropshire at the turn of the 19th c...

Hazel Woodus lives with her father, a coffin-maker and beekeeper, on a Shropshire hill, keeps a tame fox, and is wanted by two men — a minister and the master of the hunt. Webb wrote Shropshire as she saw it, while Graves' disease disfigured her; she died at forty-six almost unread, and was famous six months later when the Prime Minister praised her in a speech. The fox is not a symbol.

This is the story of us all at Sarn, of Mother and Gideon and me, and Jancis, and Wizard Beguildy, and the two or three other folk that lived in those parts, that I did set out to tell. There were but a few, and maybe always will be, for there’s a discouragement about the place. It may be the water lapping, year in and year out—everywhere you look and listen, water; or the big trees waiting and considering on your right hand and on your left; or the unbreathing quiet of the place, as if it...

'She has a style of exquisite beauty which yet has both force and restraint, simplicity and subtlety she has fancy and wit, delicious humour and pathos. She sees and knows men aright as no other novelist does. She has, In short, genius' Mr. Edwin Pugh

Mary Webb's Precious Bane is a haunting rural novel set in the border country of Shropshire, where marshland, old speech, folklore, and hard country work shape every life. From the memoir-like voice of Prue Sarn, the story looks back on a half-mythic world of Sarn Mere, where superstition, religion, family discipline, and local custom mingle with daily labor and hidden grief. Prue, judged for her deformity and drawn toward the kind, poetic weaver Kester Woodseaves, tells of love, suffering...

Although to outside eyes, her existence may seem beset by difficult circumstances, 18-year-old Hazel Woodus loves her idyllic life in the gorgeous Shropshire countryside, where she spends most of her time communing with the forest and woodland creatures. But when a clash with her eccentric father causes unbearable tension in the household, Hazel decides it's time to make her own way in the world.

Mary Gladys Meredith was born on 25th March 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the village of Leighton, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.Mary was home-schooled by her father before being sent to a finishing school in Southport in 1895. Her longs walks in the countryside helped her develop a heightened sense of observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused both her poetry and prose.When she was 20 she developed symptoms of Graves' disease, a thyroid disorde...

Mary Gladys Meredith was born on 25th March 1881 at Leighton Lodge in the village of Leighton, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.Mary was home-schooled by her father before being sent to a finishing school in Southport in 1895. Her longs walks in the countryside helped her develop a heightened sense of observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused both her poetry and prose.When she was 20 she developed symptoms of Graves' disease, a thyroid disorde...

Mary Webb's "Poems, and The Spring of Joy" is a lyrical celebration of nature, love, and the human experience, reflecting the author's deep affinity for the rural English landscape. Webb's literary style is characterized by its rich imagery and emotional depth, often infused with a sense of mysticism that invites readers to explore the connections between humanity and the natural world. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century literature, her poetry resonates with the themes of Roman...

Discover the world of ghosts and spirits with this collection of classics on ghosts. The best of the genre's literature. The Judge's House by Bram Stoker (1847–1912) The Red Room by H. G. Wells (1866–1946) A Pleasant Evening by Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) The Monkey's Paw by William Wymark Jacobs (1863–1943) The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930) Munitions of War by Arthur Machen (1863–1947) Mr. Tallent's Ghost by Mary Webb (1881–1927) Fullcircle by John Buchan (...

A vivid, emotional stage version of Mary Webb's novel of rural passion, premiered by Shared Experience Theatre Company.Incorporating traditional dances and folk songs, Gone to Earth tells the story of Hazel, an innocent and free-spirited seventeen-year-old child of nature living in rural Shropshire. But when both the wicked squire and the altruistic minister fall in love with her, she is drawn into a world of earthly passions which threatens to destroy her – as simply and ...

At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Deborah Arden is living with her father John, mother Patty and younger brother Joe in their cottage high up on the exposed moorland hilltops of Shropshire. Their farm is given over to the sheep her father cares for with great tenderness. Their life is simple and their concerns are those of the people of the land. Nature rules their world, and they respond by working alongside its almost unanswerable power on the farm. Patty's argumentative pr...