James Thomson B V was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland on the 23rd November 1834.At the age of 8 his sister died and his father suffered a stroke. Thomson was now sent south to be raised in a London orphanage, the Royal Caledonian Asylum on Chalk near Holloway. Shortly thereafter he was given the news that his mother had also now died. It was a bleak beginning to the next chapters of his life and would undoubtedly go a long way towards shaping both his character and his future.

Discover the groundbreaking liturgical and sacramental scholarship of Marie-Dominique Chenu.Why is Chenu’s scholarship still relevant today? Like his slightly younger confrere Yves Congar, the French Dominican Marie-Dominique Chenu (1895–1990) was an important visionary of Catholic theology in the twentieth century. Long before scholars like Louis-Marie Chauvet, Chenu elaborated on the essential symbolic nature of sacramental mediation, on the operationality of gra...

Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883 in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family.Life for the young Kafka and his passion for literature was often made an ordeal by his over-bearing and domineering entrepreneur of a father.In 1889 Kafka was sent to the Deutsche Knabenschule, an elementary school in Prague. His father would only allow him to be educated in German-speaking schools and even went so far as to limit visits to the synagogue to ...

He’s entered the ultimate VRMMO. But will a glitch prevent him from leaving with his sanity?Unable to see color, smell, or taste, Dave longs for a more vibrant life. So when he learns of a Japanese company seeking beta testers in a unique full-immersion game, he jumps at the chance to escape his bland monochromatic world. But when a code-error causes him to skip the tutorial, he’s thrown into play with no skills—racing to restore his health points.With only...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be publishe...

Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on the 27th January 1832 at Daresbury, Cheshire, the eldest boy and the third child. Another eight followed.When Dodgson was 11, his cleric father moved his family to Croft-on-Tees in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Although his father was active and highly conservative his son was ambivalent with those values and with the Church as a whole.In his early years Dodgson was educated at home and by age 7 he was reading the likes of...

The Scottish novelist John Buchan enjoyed a remarkable career as politician, historian and Governor General. He was born John Buchan on 26th August 1875 and later added 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH to his name.Buchan studied at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow and at seventeen won a scholarship to the University of Glasgow to study classics. There he began to write poetry. In 1895 he transferred to Oxford to continue his study of Classics and in 1896 ‘Sir Quixote of the ...

The Scottish novelist John Buchan enjoyed a remarkable career as politician, historian and Governor General. He was born John Buchan on 26th August 1875 and later added 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH to his name.Buchan studied at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow and at seventeen won a scholarship to the University of Glasgow to study classics. There he began to write poetry. In 1895 he transferred to Oxford to continue his study of Classics and in 1896 ‘Sir Quixote of the ...

George MacDonald was born on December 10th 1824 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.The MacDonald family had proud and long historical roots. His father, was a farmer, was a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered in the infamous massacre of 1692 when the Campbells set upon the MacDonalds.George grew up with the Congregational Church, with its atmosphere of Calvinism to which George never really attached himself. A story often told is that the young George on ...

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE, was a Scottish playwright, novelist and poet who became the first English-language author to be internationally celebrated within their own lifetime. Although he wrote extensively, he was by profession an advocate and judge, and continued to practice alongside his writing career. Scott was fascinated by the oral tradition of the Scottish borders, with its poetry, folklore and legend, and he collected stories throughout his youth and as a young man, almo...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...