Tony was taken in at the age of three by Mary Hynes and Janet Simons, after being separated from his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia. After that time, he was shuffled in and out of his grandmothers home before being placed in an orphanage, where he remained for one year. After a tumultuous court battle, he went home with the only two women brave enough to raise him. However, neither he nor his guardians could have imagined the trials awaiting their family after the proceedings ende...

Life is to be lived. Experiences gained, pleasures sampled. But, troublingly, when you are a classic author your thoughts sometimes lean towards darker thoughts. Within the space of a few paragraphs these literary masters shape a new world; more difficult experiences, darker pleasures. Life becomes uneasy, a queasy feeling, perhaps a repulsion here, a disgust there and very soon what was cosy, warm and comfortable becomes cold, painful, even horrific.The talents of their pens now f...

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are sudden...

Many say that some of their greatest friends, and their greatest joys and feelings, are about animals. Rather than find those same joys and feelings from amongst friends, family and the rest of humanity it can be far easier, some say wiser, to find that from other sources. Some animals may be entirely innocent and entirely devoted to us. But we forget that in the world of wild animals survival is the primary instinct and usually the great enemy is the human race.In this volume our ...