A masterfully told psychological thriller from NUMBER ONE, MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER Valerie Keogh Perfect for fans of K. L. Slater and Daniel Hurst His prized possession....his greatest mistake? From the moment I saw Ann, I knew she was perfect for me.Her beauty and her social connections would make my miserable life so much better. It didn’t matter that I didn’t love her. I would give her the lifestyle she craved, and she would give me the ...

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire on 27th July 1853.His father died when he was 13 and life was then often struck with bouts of poverty, which resulted in his education being somewhat erratic. A spell in exile at 23 was followed by another as the politics of the times opposed his volatile but heart-felt passions.Writing was also coming to the fore and in 1879 his debut short story telling of a young Narodnik sea...

François-Anatole Thibault was born on the 16th April 1844 in Paris, France, the son of a bookseller and bibliophile.He studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduating joined his father in the bookstore, which specialised in works on the French Revolution. Several years later he secured a position as cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre before being appointed librarian for the French Senate in 1876.His literary career had begun ...

Knud Pedersen was born in Lom in the Gudbrandsdal valley of Norway on the 4th of August, 1859 in what was then the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. He was the fourth son of seven children born to poor parents who, when he was three, were invited to an uncle’s farm to work his land.When he was nine he moved away from his family to help another uncle who ran a post office. Whilst with him he was beaten and starved which manifested in a series of chronic nervous difficulties. The...

Talbot Mundy was born William Lancaster Gribbon on April 23rd 1879 in London.After a particularly undistinguished record at Rugby School, he ran off to Germany and joined a circus. After his return, from Germany, he left Britain to work as a relief worker in Baroda in India.This was followed by further adventures in Africa, the Near East and the Far East. His initial inclination was to be a con artist, a confidence trickster and exploit other areas of petty criminality....

Edward Harold Begbie was born 1871. He was primarily a journalist, poet and the author of several dozen books. His works also included studies of the Christian religion. He wrote numerous other books, including on political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, plays and poetry.His short stories are highly regarded.He died in London in 1929.

Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes.Life for Crowley was to abandon his parents’ Christian faith and instead to inject himself into Western esotericism. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Or...

Wilkie Collins was born on 8th January 1824 in Marylebone, London.The family moved several times in his early years before, at 12, they travelled to France and Italy for 2 years where the sights and atmosphere made a deep and lasting impression on him.He resumed his education at Mr Cole’s private boarding school in Highbury, Islington. Here, he began his literary career under unusual circumstances: the school bully would give him no peace until he had been told a bedtime st...

Mary Frances Butts was born on 13th December 1890 in Poole, Dorset.Her early years were spent at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour. Sadly in 1905 her father died, and she was sent for boarding at St Leonard's school for girls in St Andrews.Her mother remarried and, from 1909, Mary studied at Westfield College in London, and here, first became aware of her bisexual feelings. She was sent down for organising a trip to Epsom races and only completed her...

Margaret Oliphant Wilson was born on 4th April 1828 in East Lothian in Scotland but spent her childhood in Midlothian, Glasgow and Liverpool.She wrote from a young age and in 1849 had her first novel about the Scottish Free Church movement, a cause her parents sympathized with, published. Her next, ‘Caleb Field’, a couple of years later, led to a lifelong association with Blackwood Magazine to which she contributed more than a 100 articles and reviews.In May 1852, she marri...

George Allen Upward was born in 1863. He was a poet, lawyer, politician and teacher. His poetry was included in the first anthology of Imagist poetry, ‘Des Imagistes’, edited by Ezra Pound in 1914.His short stories were also very popular in their day.He died in 1926.

Arabella Kenealy was born in 1859. A writer of short stories that had much merit she was also a physician and active in the fight against early feminism.She died in 1938.