The concept of right and wrong, of good and bad, is taught to us from childhood. It’s a guiding principle as we journey through the decades of life. Easy to keep to? Sometimes it’s easier not to.Authors of the talent of Franz Kafka, F Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Louis Stevenson and many others create characters and circumstances that test their capacity for morality to the limit.1 - Stories Exploring Morality - An Introduction2 - The Dead - Part 1 by James Joyce

Festus Claudius McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica on the 15th September 1890, He was the youngest son to parents who had gathered enough assets to secure them the right to vote.As a boy he was fascinated by English Poetry and literature, although at 17 he took on work as an apprentice woodcutter for two years before becoming a police constable in the capital, Kingston. In this mainly white and affluent town racism was rife and its nature awakened his political instincts and pu...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

As a general rule we are a trusting lot. You say something and, whilst I might disagree, I believe you are acting in good faith. Of course this may be just the beginning of a ruse. If I trust you I might let down my guard, I might seek to share and to create a bond between us. But, if you can’t be trusted, if you have an ulterior motive I might lose out.In the hands of authors such as Maxim Gorky, Ella D’Arcy, Rudyard Kipling, Ivan Turgenev and may others reality may not be what it...

‘The Mis-Education of the Negro’ by Carter Godwin Woodson (1933), addresses important economic and social issues that were face by African-Americans. Woodson criticises education in American schools, and the emphasis on the history of the Greeks, Romans and British. He explores the legacy of slavery and the economic situation of blacks in the time of depression. In each chapter he considers the results of mis-education on the church, business, politics and leadership. The book opens with a...

David Walker (1796 –1830) was an abolitionist and anti-slavery activist. In 1829, he published ‘An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World’, a call for black unity and resistance against slavery. Walker challenged the racism of his time, specifically targeting the American Colonization Society, an organization which sought to deport all free and freed blacks from the United States to a colony in Africa. The Appeal described the detrimental effects of slavery and discrimination against...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

‘A dime a dozen’ as known in America, is perhaps equal to the English ‘cheap as chips’ but whatever the lingua franca of your choice in this series we hereby submit ‘A Rhyme a Dozen’ as 12 poems on many given subjects that are a well-rounded gathering, maybe even an essential guide, from the knowing pens of classic poets and their beautifully spoken verse to the comfort of your ears.1 - A Rhyme A Dozen - 12 Poems, 12 Poets, 1 Topic - Birthdays - An Introduction2 - A Birthda...

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection b...

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex.Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunit...

Josiah Henson (1789 – 1883) was an author, abolitionist and minister. He was born into slavery in Maryland, and escaped to Canada in 1830, where he founded a settlement for fugitive slaves in Ontario. Henson's autobiography, ‘The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself’ (1849), is thought to have inspired the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’. The autobiography was written down by the abolitionist Samue...