Publius Terentius Afer is better known to us as the Roman playwright, Terence.Much of his life, especially the early part, is either unknown or has conflicting sources and accounts.His birth date is said to be either 185 BC or a decade earlier: 195 BC. His place of birth is variously listed as in, or, near Carthage, or, in Greek Italy to a woman taken to Carthage as a slave. It is suggested that he lived in the territory of the Libyan tribe that the Romans called Afri, near Carthage, before being brought to Rome as a slave. Probability suggests that it was there, in North Africa, several decades after the destruction of Carthage by the Romans in 146 BC, at the end of the Punic Wars, that Terence spent his early years.One reliable fact is that he was sold to P. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, who had him educated and, impressed by his literary talents, freed him.These writing talents were to ensure his legacy as a playwright down through the millennia. His comedies, partially adapted from Greek plays of the late phases of Attic Comedy, were performed for the first time around 170-160 BC. All six of the plays he has known to have written have survived.Indeed, thanks to his simple conversational Latin, which was both entertaining and direct, Terence's works were heavily used by monasteries and convents during the Middle Ages and The Renaissance. Scribes often learned Latin through the copious copying of Terence's texts. Priests and nuns often learned to speak Latin through re-enactment of Terence's plays. Although his plays often dealt with pagan material, the quality and distinction of his language promoted the copying and preserving of his text by the church. This preservation enabled his work to influence a wide spectrum of later Western drama.When he was 25 (or 35 depending on which year of birth you ascribe too), Terence travelled to Greece but never returned. It has long been assumed that he died at some point during the journey.Of his own family nothing is known, except that he fathered a daughter and left a small but valuable estate just outside Rome.His most famous quotation reads: "e;Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto"e;, or "e;I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me."e;

We all love a good crime story. An anthology of short crime stories, written by the finest of craftsman of their age, is always a welcome treat. The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we have a selection of short stories from many of our most accomplished writers written at the beginnings of Detective fiction. Our stories include these classics: The Adventure of the Dying Detective by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Secret Garden by GK Chesterton, Gentlemen and Players by E W Hornung, The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, The Death Of Halpin Frayser by Ambrose Bierce, The Man With The Cough by Mrs Molesworth, The Man With The Pale Eyes by Guy de Maupassant, On Duty With Inspector Field by Charles Dickens, The Stolen Cigar Case by Bret Harte, A Scandal In Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle

From Toy Story to The Good Dinosaur, some of the most iconic and hilarious moments in Pixar's films were first conceived by the artists featured in this book. But there are hundreds of gags that don't make it past the cutting room floor, like Frozone cooling some beers with his breath and Sadness wearing mom jeans. Funny! explores this material in depth, showcasing classic moments from all of Pixar's films to date, plus never-before-published illustrations and doodles from the Pixar archives. With an introduction by veteran story man Jason Katz, this book is a must-have for any Pixar fan.Copyright 2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

It's never been easier to discover and binge on new and classic TV shows, and never before have so many great series been available on screens large and small. This entertaining puzzle book by the author of Name That Movie celebrates the current golden age of television viewership with wit and style. Celebrated illustrator Paul Rogers tests readers' visual knowledge to identify each of 100 series through a sequence of six line drawings depicting places, vehicles, objects, and even fashion details ranging from the obscure to the iconic. Complete with answer key and index, this ebook is as fun to play solo as it is with fellow TV fans.

Pixar Animation Studios presents The Art of Cars 3, a behind-the-scenes look at the concept art from the latest film in the popular Cars series. Fascinating storyboards, full-color pastels, digital paintings, and more offer a unique perspective into the beloved world of Lightning McQueen and his friends, new and old. With a preface by John Lasseter, foreword by director Brian Fee, and an introduction by production designers Bill Cone and Jay Shuster, The Art of Cars 3 is a scenic road trip through a masterfully animated film.Copyright 2017 Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Pixar. All rights reserved.

Cars 2 is a globetrotting, high-octane ride through the world of Lightning McQueen, his best friend Mater, and an international collection of completely new characters. The Art of Cars 2 follows the development of the second installment in the Cars series, from the first story concepts and the filmmakers' worldwide research to the intricate "e;carified"e; details that make up the unique Cars 2 universe. Featuring the behind-the-scenes concept art that went into the film's creation--including color scripts, storyboards, character studies, environmental art, sculpts, and more--as well as a forward by director and racecar-enthusiast John Lasseter, The Art of Cars 2 celebrates the art and intrigue of this amazing new Pixar film.

Anne Kingsmill was born in April 1661 (an exact date is not known) in Sydmonton, Hampshire.Throughout her life Anne was involved in several Court cases that dragged on for years. These involved both a share of her parents estate for her education and later her and her husband's share of an inheritance.In 1682, Anne became a maid of honour to Mary of Modena (wife of James, Duke of York, later King James II) at St James's Palace.Anne's interest in poetry began at the palace, and she started writing her own verse. The Court however was no place for a woman to display any poetic efforts. Woman were not considered suitable for such literary pursuits.At court, Anne met Colonel Heneage Finch. A courtier as well as a soldier. The couple married on 15th May 1684.

The life of William Shakespeare, arguably the most significant figure in the Western literary canon, is relatively unknown. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1565, possibly on the 23rd April, St. George's Day, and baptised there on 26th April. Little is known of his education and the first firm facts to his life relate to his marriage, aged 18, to Anne Hathaway, who was 26 and from the nearby village of Shottery. Anne gave birth to their first son six months later. Shakespeare's first play, The Comedy of Errors began a procession of real heavyweights that were to emanate from his pen in a career of just over twenty years in which 37 plays were written and his reputation forever established. This early skill was recognised by many and by 1594 the Lord Chamberlain's Men were performing his works. With the advantage of Shakespeare's progressive writing they rapidly became London's leading company of players, affording him more exposure and, following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, a royal patent by the new king, James I, at which point they changed their name to the King's Men. By 1598, and despite efforts to pirate his work, Shakespeare's name was well known and had become a selling point in its own right on title pages. No plays are attributed to Shakespeare after 1613, and the last few plays he wrote before this time were in collaboration with other writers, one of whom is likely to be John Fletcher who succeeded him as the house playwright for the King's Men. William Shakespeare died two months later on April 23rd, 1616, survived by his wife, two daughters and a legacy of writing that none have since yet eclipsed.

Robert Bridges was born in Walmer, Kent on the 23rd of October 1844. He went to study medicine intending to practise until the age of forty and then retire to write poetry. Lung disease forced him to retire in 1882, and from that point on he devoted himself to writing and literary research. However, Bridges' literary work started long before his retirement, his first collection of poems having been published in 1873. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1913 by George V, the only medical graduate to have held the office. He died in Oxford on the 21st of April 1930. Here we present Prometheus The Firegiver.

Thomas Middleton was born in London in April 1580 and baptised on 18th April. Middleton was aged only five when his father died. His mother remarried but this unfortunately fell apart into a fifteen year legal dispute regarding the inheritance due Thomas and his younger sister. By the time he left Oxford, at the turn of the Century, Middleton had and published Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satirese which was denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury and publicly burned. In the early years of the 17th century, Middleton wrote topical pamphlets. One - Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets was reprinted several times and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. These early years writing plays continued to attract controversy. His writing partnership with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman in the so-called War of the Theatres. His finest work with Dekker was undoubtedly The Roaring Girl, a biography of the notorious Mary Frith. In the 1610s, Middleton began another playwriting partnership, this time with the actor William Rowley, producing another slew of plays including Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel. The ever adaptable Middleton seemed at ease working with others or by himself. His solo writing credits include the comic masterpiece, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in 1613. In 1620 he was officially appointed as chronologer of the City of London, a post he held until his death. The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley's tragedy, and continual favourite, The Changeling, and of several other tragicomedies. However in 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chess was staged by the King's Men. Though Middleton's approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after only nine performances at the Globe theatre, having received a complaint from the Spanish ambassador. What happened next is a mystery. It is the last play recorded as having being written by Middleton. Thomas Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in the summer of 1627, and was buried on July 4th, in St Mary's churchyard which today survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.

Anna Sewell's only published novel, Black Beauty, is an extraordinary classic that deals with animal life and focuses on the importance of good animal treatment. The idea of writing a book about animal rights has been inspired by Sewell's own physical disability which has made her dependent on horse-drawn transportation. The narrator in Black Beauty is himself a personified horse who tells his life story and describes the world through his own lenses. Sewell says that the objective of writing the novel is to sensitize people to the sufferings of "e;working animals"e; and she has actually succeeded in fostering legislation protecting horses and in influencing public attitudes towards animal pain. Black Beauty's life crucially changes when he is taken from a country farm to pull cabs in the city of London. The different ordeals that he has to go through often contain a moral lesson that teaches kindness and sympathy not only for the poor animals, but also between human beings themselves. Indeed, the novel does not miss to cover the hardships of London taxi drivers either. Generally, Sewell's seminal classic has had a great influence on other writers of animal stories and has opened up new windows of discovering animal life.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois. His early career was unremarkable. After failing to enter West Point he enlisted in the 7th Calvary but was discharged after heart problems were diagnosed. A series of short term jobs gave no indication as to a career path but finally, in 1911, married and with two young children, he turned his hand to writing. He aimed his works squarely at the very popular pulp serial magazines. His first effort 'Under The Moons Of Mars' ran in Munsey's Magazine in 1912 under the pseudonym Norman Bean. With its success he began writing full time. A continuing theme of his work was to develop series so that each character had ample opportunities to return in sequels. John Carter was in the Mars series and there was another on Venus and one on Pellucidar among others. But perhaps the best known is Tarzan. Indeed Burroughs wanted so much to capitalise upon the brand that he introduced a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, movies and merchandise. He purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named "e;Tarzana."e; The surrounding communities outside the ranch voted in 1927 to adopt the name as their own. By 1932 Burroughs set up his own company to print his own books. Here we publish 'The Mad King' somewhat different to what you think Burroughs would write but an engaging and crafted work that shows why Burroughs was able to weave his talents into so many stories.

Flora Jane Timms was born on December 5th, 1876 in Juniper Hill in northeast Oxfordshire, the eldest of twelve children to Albert Timms, a stonemason, and Emma, a nursemaid. Only she and five siblings survived.Flora was educated at the parish school in the village of Cottisford and described as 'altogether her father's child'.When she was 14, In 1891, Flora moved to start work as a counter clerk at the post office in Fringford, a village about 4 miles northeast of Bicester. It was to be the first in a series of jobs at various other post offices, including those at Grayshott, Yateley, and later Bournemouth.By 1896 Flora was a regular contributor to The Catholic Fireside on her thoughts and activities in the Countryside and many of her works from here were published as The Peverel Papers.In 1903 she married John William Thompson, a post office clerk and telegraphist from the Isle of Wight, at Twickenham Parish Church. After the marriage they moved to Bournemouth to settle down and build a life together. A daughter, Winifred Grace, was born in 1903, followed by two sons, Henry Basil, in 1909 and Peter Redmond in 1918.Flora was a self-taught writer but had taken some time to establish her career. Her early married life may have also required setting writing aside for some time but in 1911 she won a competition in The Ladies Companion for a 300-word essay on Jane Austen.In 1921 she published her only book of poetry, Bog-Myrtle and Peat, and, by the following year, 1922, she was thinking of writing about her childhood in what would later become her defining works.Meanwhile she continued to write extensively, publishing short stories together with magazine and newspaper articles.In 1925 she published a travel guide to Liphook, Bramshott and Neighbourhood.Flora also had a great interest and knowledge, again self-taught, as a naturalist. Many of her works on the subject were published and later anthologised.In 1938 Flora at last sent several essays on her country childhood to Oxford University Press. The publisher accepted them, and they were published in three separate volumes, Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), and Candleford Green (1943). In 1945 the books were republished as a trilogy under the title Lark Rise to Candleford. Together the books are a lightly disguised story of the author's own youth, describing life in a hamlet, a village, and a country town in the 1880s.The death of her younger son during the Second World War affected her deeply and overshadowed her final years.Flora Thompson died on 21st May 1947, at age 70, of a heart attack in Brixham, and is buried at Longcross Cemetery, Dartmouth in Devon.Two of Thompson's later lesser-known works were published posthumously: Heatherley, recounting her time in the post office at Grayshott at the turn of the 20th century as her lifelong interests took shape, the longing for education and culture and the desire to become a writer; and her last completed book Still Glides the Stream.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, more readily known as Seneca the Younger, was born at Cordoba in the Roman province of Baetica in Hispania in approx 4 BC.Seneca attests that he was taken to Rome at a young age and educated in literature, grammar, and rhetoric; the standard education of high-born Romans. He also received philosophical training.Much of his life is not well documented but accounts do lean towards a pattern of ill-health at times. His breathing difficulties are thought to be the result of asthma and during his mid-twenties he contracted tuberculosis.He was sent to Egypt to live with his aunt, whose husband, Gaius Galerius, was Prefect of Egypt. In 31 AD he returned to Rome with her and, with her influence, was elected quaestor and with it the right to sit in the Roman Senate.Seneca's early career as a senator was successful and he was fulsomely praised for his oratory. A story related that emperor Caligula was so offended by Seneca's oratorical success that he ordered him to commit suicide. Seneca's ill-health prevented that.In 41 AD, Claudius became emperor, and Seneca was promptly cited by the new empress Messalina of adultery with Julia Livilla, the sister of Caligula and Agrippina.After trial the Senate pronounced a death sentence, which Claudius then commuted to exile. Seneca was to now spend the next eight years in Corsica. From this period of exile survive two of his earliest works-both consolations.In 49 AD Agrippina married her uncle Claudius, and through her Seneca was recalled to Rome. Agrippina appointed him, as tutor to her son, the future emperor Nero.Nero's early rule, during which he followed the advice of Seneca and Burrus, was competent. However, within a few years both Seneca and Burrus had lost their influence.In 58 AD the senator Publius Suillius Rufus made a series of public attacks on him saying that, Seneca had acquired a personal fortune of three hundred million sestertii. In response, Seneca brought a series of prosecutions for corruption against him. Suillius was dispatched into exile.After Burrus's death in 62 AD, Seneca's influence further declined. He adopted a quiet lifestyle at his country estates, concentrating on his studies and seldom visiting Rome. It was during these final few years that he composed two of his greatest works: 'Naturales Quaestiones'-an encyclopedia of the natural world; and his 'Letters to Lucilius'-which document his philosophical thoughts.In AD 65, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian plot to kill Nero. Nero ordered him to kill himself. Seneca followed tradition by opening several veins in order to bleed to death. It was a sad conclusion for a man who has been called the first great Western thinker on the complex nature and role of gratitude in human relationships.

Robert Browning is one of the most significant Victorian Poets and, of course, English Poetry.Much of his reputation is based upon his mastery of the dramatic monologue although his talents encompassed verse plays and even a well-regarded essay on Shelley during a long and prolific career. He was born on May 7th, 1812 in Walmouth, London. Much of his education was home based and Browning was an eclectic and studious student, learning several languages and much else across a myriad of subjects, interests and passions. Browning's early career began promisingly. The fragment from his intended long poem Pauline brought him to the attention of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and was followed by Paracelsus, which was praised by both William Wordsworth and Charles Dickens. In 1840 the difficult Sordello, which was seen as willfully obscure, brought his career almost to a standstill. Despite these artistic and professional difficulties his personal life was about to become immensely fulfilling. He began a relationship with, and then married, the older and better known Elizabeth Barrett. This new foundation served to energise his writings, his life and his career. During their time in Italy they both wrote much of their best work. With her untimely death in 1861 he returned to London and thereafter began several further major projects. The collection Dramatis Personae (1864) and the book-length epic poem The Ring and the Book (1868-69) were published and well received; his reputation as a venerated English poet now assured. Robert Browning died in Venice on December 12th, 1889.

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888 in a hotel bedroom in what is now Times Square, New York. Much of his childhood was spent in the comfort of books at boarding schools whilst his actor father was on the road and his Mother contended with her own demons. He spent only a year at University - Princeton - and various reasons have been given for his departure. However whatever his background and education denied or added to his development it is agreed amongst all that he was a playwright of the first rank and possibly America's greatest. His introduction of realism into American drama was instrumental in its development and paved a path for many talents thereafter. Of course his winning of both the Pulitzer Prize (4 times) and the Nobel Prize are indicative of his status. His more famous and later works do side with the disillusionment and personal tragedy of those on the fringes of society but continue to build upon ideas and structures he incorporated in his early one act plays. Eugene O'Neill suffered from various health problems, mainly depression and alcoholism. In the last decade he also faced a Parkinson's like tremor in his hands which made writing increasingly difficult. But out of such difficulties came plays of the calibre of The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Eugene O'Neill died in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at the age of 65. As he was dying, he whispered his last words: "e;I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room."e;

Victor Marie Hugo was born on 26th February 1802 and is revered as the greatest of all French writers. A poet, novelist, dramatist and painter he was a passionate supporter of Republicanism and made a notable contribution to the politics of his Country.His life was paralleled by the immense political and social movements of the 19th Century. When he was two Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor but before he was eighteen the Bourbon Monarchy was restored.It was only with his Mother's death in 1821 that he felt confident enough to marry Adele Foucher, a relationship he had kept secret from his mother. Their first child was born inside a year but died in infancy. Leopoldine was born the following year, followed by three further siblings.Hugo published his first novel the year following year, Han d'Islande, (1823). Three years later his second, Bug-Jargal (1826).Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five further volumes of poetry solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time. His reputation was growing not only in France but across Europe.In 1841 he was elected to the Academie Francaise, cementing his position in the world of French arts and letters. Hugo also now began to turn his attention to an involvement in French politics.Elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 he spoke eloquently and at length against the death penalty and social injustice as well as passionately in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland.When Napoleon III seized power in 1851, and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France and began a long exile, based mainly in Guernsey.In exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets; Napoleon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. Although the pamphlets were banned in France, they nonetheless made a strong impact there. His exile also seemed to have a creative impetus. He composed or published some of his greatest work including Les Miserables, and three widely honoured collections of poetry (Les Chatiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Legende des siecles, 1859).In 1870 the Third Republic was established and Hugo finally returned home, where he was elected to the National Assembly and the Senate. That same year War erupted between France and Prussia and the French were badly beaten.With the end of the War Hugo began his campaign for a great valuation and protection for the rights of artists and copyright. He was a founding member of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.Victor Hugo's death on 22nd May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense nation-wide mourning. Revered not only as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who had helped to shape the Third Republic and democracy in France.Index of ContentsDRAMATIS PERSONTIME: LONDON, 1553MARY TUDORFIRST DAYA MAN OF THE PEOPLESCENE:-Border of the Thames.SCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VSCENE VISCENE VIISCENE VIIISCENE IXSECOND DAYTHE QUEENSCENE:-A Room in the royal apartment.SCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VSCENE VISCENE VIISCENE VIIISCENE IXTHIRD DAYPART IWHICH OF THE TWO?SCENE:-Hall in the Interior of the Tower of London.SCENE ISCENE IISCENE IIISCENE IVSCENE VSCENE VISCENE VIIISCENE IXSCENE XTHIRD DAYPART IISCENE:-A Hall or Room into Which lead Two Staircases.SCENE ISCENE IIVICTOR HUGO - A SHORT BIOGRAPHYVICTOR HUGO - A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Duchess of Padua is a play by the world famous wit Oscar Wilde. A five-act melodramatic tragedy set in Padua and written in blank verse. It was written for the actress Mary Anderson in early 1883 while in Paris. Alas she turned it down and it was abandoned until a run on Broadway re-titled Guido Ferranti. It ran for three weeks. It is rarely seen but on account of the immense talents of its author we thought it deserved a wider audience. We hope that includes you.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born on 11th November 1821.He was introduced to literature very early. At age three, it was heroic sagas, fairy tales and legends. At four his mother used the Bible to teach him to read and write. His immersion in literature was wide and varied. His imagination, he later recalled, was brought to life by his parents' nightly readings.On 27th September 1837 tragedy struck. Dostoyevsky's mother died of tuberculosis.Dostoyevsky and his brother were now enrolled at the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, their academic studies abandoned for military careers. Dostoyevsky disliked the academy, his interests were drawing and architecture.His father died on 16th June 1839 and perhaps triggered Dostoyevsky's epilepsy. However, he continued his studies, passed his exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet.Dostoyevsky's first completed work was a translation of Honore de Balzac's novel Eugenie Grandet, published in 1843. It was not successful. He believed his financial difficulties could be overcome by writing his own novel. The result was 'Poor Folk', published in 1846, and a commercial success.His next novel, 'The Double', appeared in January 1846. Dostoyevsky now became immersed in socialism. However, 'The Double' received bad reviews and he now had more frequent seizures. With debts mounting he joined the utopian socialist Betekov circle, which helped him to survive. When that dissolved he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, which proposed social reforms. The Petrashevsky Circle was then denounced and Dostoyevsky accused of reading and distributing banned works. Arrests took place in late April 1849 and its members sentenced to death by firing squad. The Tsar commuted the sentence to four years of exile with hard labour in Siberia.His writings on these prison experiences, 'The House of the Dead' were published in 1861.In Saint Petersburg that September he promised his editor he would deliver 'The Gambler', a novella on gambling addiction, by November, although work had yet to begin. It was completed in a mere 26 days.Other works followed but a different approach helped immensely. In 1873 'Demons' was published by the "e;Dostoyevsky Publishing Company"e;. Only payment in cash was accepted and the bookshop was the family apartment. It sold around 3,000 copies.However, Dostoyevsky's health continued to decline, and in March 1877 he had four epileptic seizures. In August 1879 he was diagnosed with early-stage pulmonary emphysema. He was told it could be managed, but not cured.On 26th January 1881 Dostoyevsky suffered a pulmonary haemorrhage. After the second the doctors gave a poor prognosis. A third haemorrhage followed shortly afterwards.Fyodor Dostoyevsky died on 9th February, 1881.

Nicholas Rowe was born in Little Barford, Bedfordshire, England, on June 20th, 1674. He was educated at Highgate School, and then at Westminster School under the tutelage of Dr. Busby.In 1688, Rowe became a King's Scholar, and then in 1691 gained entrance into Middle Temple. This was his father's decision (he was a barrister) who felt that his son had made sufficient progress to study law. While at Middle Temple, he decided that studying law was easier if seen as a system of rational government and impartial justice and not as a series of precedents, or collection of positive precepts.On his father's death, when he was nineteen, he became the master of a large estate and an independent fortune. His future path now was to ignore law and write poetry with a view to eventually writing plays.The Ambitious Stepmother, Rowe's first play, produced in 1700 at Lincoln's Inn Fields by Thomas Betterton and set in Persepolis, was well received. This was followed in 1701 by Tamerlane. In this play the conqueror Timur represented William III, and Louis XIV is denounced as Bajazet. It was for many years regularly acted on the anniversary of William's landing at Torbay. In 1704, he tried his hand at comedy, with The Biter at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The play is said to have amused no one except the author, and Rowe returned to tragedy in Ulysses (1706). For Johnson, this play was to share the fate of many such plays based on mythological heroes, as, "e;We have been too early acquainted with the poetical heroes to expect any pleasure from their revival"e;The Royal Convert (1707) dealt with the persecutions endured by Aribert, son of Hengist and the Christian maiden Ethelinda. The story was set in England in an obscure and barbarous age. Rodogune was a tragic character, of high spirit and violent passions, yet with a wicked with a soul that would have been heroic if it had been virtuous.Rowe is however well known for his work on Shakespeare's plays. He published the first 18th century edition of Shakespeare in six volumes in 1709. His practical knowledge of the stage helped him divide the plays into scenes and acts, with entrances and exits of the players noted. The spelling of names was normalized and each play prefixed with a dramatis personae. This 1709 edition was also the first to be illustrated, a frontispiece engraving being provided for each play. Unfortunately, Rowe based his text on the discredited Fourth Folio, a failing which many succeeding him also followed.Rowe also wrote a short biography of William Shakespeare, entitled, Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespeare.In Dublin in 1712 a revival of his earlier play, Tamerlane, at a time when political passions were running high, the performance provoked a serious riot.The Tragedy of Jane Shore, played at Drury Lane with Mrs Oldfield in the title role in 1714. It ran for nineteen nights, and kept the stage longer than any other of Rowe's works. In the play, which consists chiefly of domestic scenes and private distress, the wife is forgiven because she repents, and the husband is honoured because he forgives.Whilst his plays met with little success at the time his poems were received extremely well. Although he was not prolific nor his output large the quality was high. With the accession to the throne of George I he was made a surveyor of customs, and then, in 1715, he succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureate. It was the high point of his artistic life.He was also appointed clerk of the council to the Prince of Wales, and in 1718 was nominated by Lord Chancellor Parker as clerk of the presentations in Chancery. Nicholas Rowe died on December 6th, 1718, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.Rowe married first a daughter of a Mr Parsons and left a son John. By his second wife Anne, nee Devenish, he had a daughter Charlotte.

If ever a writer needed an introduction Arthur Conan Doyle would not be considered that man. After all, Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the foremost literary detective of any age. Add to this canon his stories of science fiction and his poems, his historical novels, his plays, his political campaigning, his efforts in establishing a Court of Appeal and there is little room for anything else. Except he was also an exceptional writer of short stories of the horrific and macabre. Something very different from what you might expect. Born in Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1876 - 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh following which he was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast in 1881. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than GBP10 (GBP700 today) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel The Mystery of Cloomber. Although he continued to study and practice medicine his career was now firmly set as a writer. And thereafter great works continued to pour out of him.