Phil Benson
The Story of Peterloo
Read by Phil Benson
Francis Archibald Bruton
On 16th August 1819 around 60,000 people gathered at St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester, to rally for parliamentary reform. Shortly after the me…
Lancashire
Read by Phil Benson
Francis Archibald Bruton
The county of Lancashire in the north-west of England is best known as the engine room of the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. Stee…
In a North Country Village
Read by Phil Benson
M. E. Francis
M. E. Francis was born Mary E. Sweetman in Dublin and moved to Lancashire on her marriage to Francis Nicholas Blundell, of the Blundell fami…
The River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets
Read by Phil Benson
William Wordsworth
Located in a part of Cumbria that was once part of Lancashire, the River Duddon rises in the high fells of the Lake District and flows for 2…
Clog Shop Chronicles
Read by Phil Benson
John Ackworth
John Ackworth was the pen name of the Rev. Frederick R. Smith, a Methodist minister who was born in Snaith, Yorkshire, but spent much of his…
Three Accounts of Peterloo
Read by Phil Benson
Francis Archibald Bruton
A companion volume to F.A. Bruton's 'The Story of Peterloo', the full title of this short collection is 'Three Accounts of Peterloo by Eyewi…
The Masque of Anarchy
Read by Phil Benson
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's response to the Peterloo massacre at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, where 18 died and hundreds were inju…
Lancashire Characters and Places
Read by Phil Benson
Thomas Newbigging
An eclectic collection of essays on late 19th-century Lancashire culture and life, including essays on the poets John Critchley Prince and E…
The Itinerary of John Leland in or About the Years 1535-1543
Read by Phil Benson
John Leland
John Leland's 'Itinerary' was the product of several journeys around England and Wales undertaken between 1538 and 1543. The manuscript is m…
Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland
Read by Phil Benson
William Gershom Collingwood
A fine adventure set in 10th-century England at a time when everyday life in north was made hazardous by wars and shifting alliances among S…
The Experienced English Housekeeper
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth Raffald
'Cut a large old hare in small pieces, and put it in a mug with three blades of mace, a little salt, two large onions, one red herring, six …
Tim Bobbin: A View of the Lancashire Dialect
Read by Phil Benson
Various
A comic dialogue written in John Collier's idiosyncratic version of the 18th century South Lancashire dialect together with a collection of …
The Manchester Man
Read by Phil Benson
Isabella Varley Banks
Jabez Clegg, the Manchester man, floats into this historical novel in 1799, carried downstream by the River Irk in flood. Jabez's rise to co…
Songs of a Sourdough
Read by Phil Benson
Robert W. Service
Reputedly the best-selling poetry collection of the 20th century, 'Songs of a Sourdough' is best known for Robert W. Service's classic Yukon…
The Cycle Industry, its origin, history and latest developments
Read by Phil Benson
Walter Ferdinando Grew
From the velocipede to the motor cycle in twenty chapters. A short history of the British bicycle industry from its origins in a Coventry se…
Early explorations in New South Wales: A collection
Read by Phil Benson
Various
In the early days of the penal colony at Sydney, rumour was rife among the convicts of another colony beyond the Blue Mountains and perhaps …
That Lass o' Lowrie's
Read by Phil Benson
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born and grew up in Manchester, England, and emigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 16. Fo…
The Present Picture of New South Wales
Read by Phil Benson
David Dickinson Mann
Convicted of forgery at the age of 23, David Dickenson Mann narrowly escaped hanging and was transported instead to New South Wales, where h…
Beckside Lights
Read by Phil Benson
John Ackworth
John Ackworth was the pen name of the Rev. Frederick R. Smith, a Methodist minister who was born in Snaith, Yorkshire, but spent much of his…
Criminal Manchester: Experiences of a Special Correspondent
Read by Phil Benson
William James Mcglothlin
Follow the Manchester Evening News 'special correspondent' and his guide - recently back from a 'seven stretch' - as they take you on a tour…
Karl Marx: An Essay
Read by Phil Benson
Harold J. Laski
Born in Manchester in 1893, Harold Laski was a leading figure in the left-wing of British socialism in the first half of the 20th century. A…
Hard Times (version 3), Locked Out and On Strike
Read by Phil Benson
Charles Dickens
Hard Times was Dickens's shortest novel and the only one to be set in the industrial north of England. A fast moving story with a typical ca…
Cycling in the Alps
Read by Phil Benson
C. L. Freeston
A guide to cycling in the European Alps in the days before surfaced roads and automobile tourism. As the author explains, the spectacular vi…
Doxie Dent
Read by Phil Benson
John Ackworth
Following the short story collections, Clog Shop Chronicles and Beckside Lights, John Ackworth completed the adventures of clogger Jabez Cle…
The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena
Read by Phil Benson
C. W. Leadbeater
As skeptics dismissed other-worldly phenomena as the stuff of legend, trickery or delusion, nineteenth-century 'occult science' set out to e…
Short Stories (Household Words 1850-53)
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell was a regular contributor to Charles Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, from 1850 through to 1853 In addition to …
Lancashire Dialogues
Read by Phil Benson
John Byrom
A scion of the Byroms of Byrom Hall in Lowton, Lancashire, John Byrom was born and lived in Manchester and Salford for much of his life. Edu…
Sonnets on Anglo-Saxon History
Read by Phil Benson
Ann Hawkshaw
The history of Britain up to the Norman Conquest in the form of 100 prose commentaries, each followed by a sonnet. The commentaries set the …
Extracts from a Diary Kept by the Rev. R. Burrows during Heke's War in the Nort…
Read by Phil Benson
Robert Burrows
An eye-witness account of the so-called Flagstaff War, fought between Maori warriors, led by Hone Heke, and British troops between March 184…
Poems and Songs in the Lancashire Dialect
Read by Phil Benson
Edwin Waugh
A selection of poems in the Lancashire dialect by the foremost exponent of the form. A printer by training, Edwin Waugh left his trade for s…
Travels in Lancashire
Read by Phil Benson
Various,William Roscoe
A collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry on travels in Lancashire, England, with occasional sorties into adjacent counties. - Summary…
Dionysius the Areopagite, with other poems
Read by Phil Benson
Ann Hawkshaw
An early figure in the birth of poetry in industrial Manchester, Ann Hawkshaw published three collections and another was circulated private…
Forty Seasons of First-Class Cricket
Read by Phil Benson
Richard Gorton Barlow
R. G. "Dick" Barlow was one of the most accomplished all-round cricketers of the late 19th Century. For many years he opened the b…
Poems for my Children
Read by Phil Benson
Ann Hawkshaw
Published in 1847, five years after her epic poem, 'Dionysus the Areopagite', 'Poems For My Children' was Ann Hawkshaw's second collection o…
Cecil's Own Book
Read by Phil Benson
Ann Hawkshaw
Ann Hawkshaw's fourth and final collection was published privately and named for her young grandson, Cecil Wedgwood. Written for children, t…
Athenaeum Souvenir
Read by Phil Benson
Various
The Manchester Athenaeum was founded in 1837 as a society for the "advancement and diffusion of knowledge". This short collection …
Selections from Harris's Cabinet
Read by Phil Benson
William Roscoe
In the early 1800s, London publisher John Harris began producing small books for children that were designed not to instruct, but to enterta…
The Story of the Glittering Plain
Read by Phil Benson
William Morris
In this early example of the modern high fantasy genre, Hallblithe, a warrior of the House of Raven, sets out in pursuit of the pirates who …
Guides to Belle Vue Zoological Gardens 1891-1917
Read by Phil Benson
Various
Guides to the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens from the Chetham's Library Virtual Belle Vue Collection. The Belle Vue gardens opened in 1836 as …
The Haunted Woman
Read by Phil Benson
David Lindsay
Isabel Loment is engaged to the affectionate, but unemotional, Marshall Stokes. House-hunting for her aunt, she comes to Runhill Court, an a…
Who Did It?
Read by Phil Benson
Nat Gould
Following the dissolution of the New South Wales government, Henry Bryce is ready to take on the Labour Party for the seat of Balmain East. …
Aladore
Read by Phil Benson
Sir Henry Newbolt
Ywain, a knight bored with his administrative duties, abandons his estate to his younger brother and goes on a pilgrimage to seek his heart'…
Things Seen in Florence
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth W. Grierson
One of the largest and wealthiest cities of medieval Europe, the home of Dante and Giotto has long been a magnet for lovers of art, architec…
Prose Romances from the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine (1856)
Read by Phil Benson
William Morris
William Morris initiated the genre of high fantasy in a number of short novels written toward the end of his life. But he had already experi…
Things Seen in Venice
Read by Phil Benson
Lonsdale Ragg and Laura Marie Ragg
Venice, once among the most powerful states of the Western world, now a much-visited but still romantic city of canals, architecture and art…
The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician
Read by Phil Benson
Edwin Lester Arnold
Phra, a Phoenician merchant and warrior, settles in the south of England as husband to Blodwen, a British princess. Slain during the Roman i…
The Birth of Professional Rugby League in Australia: A selection from the Sydne…
Read by Phil Benson
Sydney Morning Herald
In early 1907 the world of Australian rugby was rocked by the news that a professional New Zealand All Blacks team was set to tour the north…
Six lectures on literature
Read by Phil Benson
Charles Harold Herford
C. H. Herford was Professor of English Literature at the Victoria University of Manchester in era when public lectures were published in pam…
Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair
Read by Phil Benson
William Morris
A prose romance set in the forested kingdom of Oakenrealm, where a squirrel can go about from end to end without touching the ground, in whi…
North Lancashire
Read by Phil Benson
John Edward Marr
Cambridge County Geographies was a 75 volume series covering the counties of England, Scotland and Wales. Separate volumes were produced for…
An Excursion to the Lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland, August 1773
Read by Phil Benson
William Hutchinson
In the summer of 1773, lawyer and antiquarian William Hutchinson set out from his home in County Durham on a tour of the English Lake Distri…
Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London
Read by Phil Benson
John Gay
John Gay's Trivia is a satirical guide to walking the streets of London, written in mock heroic style. Learn how to avoid pickpockets, wig t…
Songs for the Millions, and other poems
Read by Phil Benson
Benjamin Stott
Born in Manchester, and a bookbinder by trade, Benjamin Stott was an active trade unionist and member of the Chartist movement. Songs of the…
The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed
Read by Phil Benson
Cenydd Morus
Cenydd Morus's (Kenneth Morris) imaginative retelling of tales from the Mabinogion, the great work of Welsh literature first recorded in the…
Short stories (Early works 1837-1852)
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's early short stories. Following the publication of Mary Barton in 1848, Gaskell published many of her sho…
The Roots of the Mountains
Read by Phil Benson
William Morris
The Roots of the Mountains was the second in a projected series of three historical novels set in a pre-medieval Germanic world (the third w…
Nada the Lily
Read by Phil Benson
H. Rider Haggard
A classic tale of love and revenge set in the Zulu Kingdom of present-day KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. A work of fiction loosely woven aro…
Wild and romantic: Early guides to the English lake district
Read by Phil Benson
Thomas Gray
A collection of some of the most significant literary work on the English Lake District prior to Thomas West’s A guide to the Lakes (1778). …
A Guide to the Lakes
Read by Phil Benson
Thomas West
In the late eighteenth century, English writers discovered the landscape, not only in the paintings of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and S…
Jaufry the Knight and the Fair Brunissende
Read by Phil Benson
Jean-Bernard Mary-Lafon
Taulat de Rugimon arrives at the court of King Arthur and stabs one of Arthur's knights. Jaufry, a young and ambitious knight, sets off in p…
Coniston Tales
Read by Phil Benson
William Gershom Collingwood
A selection of poems and short prose pieces grounded in the landscape, history and legends of Coniston in the English Lake District. W. G. C…
The Spirit of Bambatse
Read by Phil Benson
H. Rider Haggard
A romance, a shipwreck and a hunt for buried Portuguese treasure in the Transvaal. All the ingredients of an imperial adventure that made Ha…
BLAST No. 1
Read by Phil Benson
Various
BLAST, edited by Wyndham Lewis and subtitled 'Review of the Great British Vortex', was the magazine of the short-lived Vorticist movement in…
Exeter
Read by Phil Benson
Frederick W. Heath and Sidney Heath
Exeter, county town of Devon, is one of England's most historic cities with remains of the Roman occupation and medieval times still on view…
The White Doe of Rylstone
Read by Phil Benson
William Wordsworth
A narrative poem in seven cantos, set during the Northern Rebellion of 1569. A group of Catholic nobleman from the North of England attempt …
With Swag and Billy: A Guide to Walking Trips in Tourist Districts of New South…
Read by Phil Benson
Henry J. Tompkins
A guide to hikes around Sydney, Australia, from the early years of the twentieth century. In 1895, Henry J. Tompkins and William Mogford Ham…
Hartmann the Anarchist, or the Doom of a Great City
Read by Phil Benson
Edward Douglas Fawcett
A gem of nineteenth-century science fiction from mountaineer, philosopher and occasional novelist, Edward Douglas Fawcett. Stanley, a wealth…
Manchester Poetry
Read by Phil Benson
James Wheeler
Manchester's first published anthology of locally-written poetry was compiled by editor James Wheeler to show that Manchester, 'the most mec…
The Master Girl: A Romance
Read by Phil Benson
Henry Marriage Wallis
A stone age romance. Deh-Yun of the Little Moon comes across Pul-Yun of the Sun Disc, who has broken his leg while in search of a woman to k…
Short Stories (Household Words, 1854-58)
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell published 18 short works in Charles Dickens' Household Words between 1850 and 1858. This collection follows the Librivox c…
Short Stories (All the Year Round, 1859-1863)
Read by Phil Benson
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
In 1859 Charles Dickens launched a new weekly journal, All the Year Round, to replace Household Words. Elizabeth Gaskell remained a prolific…
Geraldine Jewsbury in Jerrold's Shilling Magazine, 1846-47
Read by Phil Benson
Geraldine Jewsbury
'The most striking feature in the present day, far more than that of railways even, is the utter chaos into which all previously received pr…
The Blue Review, Number 1
Read by Phil Benson
Various
The Blue Review was a short lived monthly journal published in London between May and July 1913. The successor to Rhythm, The Blue Review wa…
The Blue Review, Number 2
Read by Phil Benson
Various
The Blue Review was a short lived monthly journal published in London between May and July 1913. The successor to Rhythm, The Blue Review wa…
Two Cumberland Ballads
Read by Phil Benson
John Stagg
Two narrative ballads, based on local lore, by the Cumberland poet John Stagg. In 'The Hermit of Rockcliffe', a young fugitive takes refuge …
Footsteps of Fate
Read by Phil Benson
Louis Couperus
A short but intense novel, Footsteps of Fate tells of the friendship of two young Dutchmen in London, Frank and Bertie. Arriving destitute a…
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
Read by Phil Benson
William T. Cox
A limbless reptilian monster that propels itself through the swamps with a propellor-tipped tail? A creature so ashamed of its monstrous app…
The Blue Review, Number 3
Read by Phil Benson
Various
The Blue Review was a short lived monthly journal published in London between May and July 1913. The successor to Rhythm, The Blue Review wa…
Small Souls
Read by Phil Benson
Louis Couperus
Constance van der Welcke returns to the Hague and the bosom of her family after a twenty year exile caused by a marital indiscretion and div…
Six lyrics from the Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko, also The Song of the Merchan…
Read by Phil Benson
Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov
Poetry by two radical poets, born in the same year, who suffered exile and punishment under the Tsarist Russian empire. Taras Shevchenko is …
John Bull's Vineyard: Australian Sketches
Read by Phil Benson
Hubert de Castella and Hubert De Castella
An account of the origins of the wine industry in Victoria, Australia. Born in Neuchatel, Switzerland, Hubert de Castella was one of a numbe…
The Later Life
Read by Phil Benson
Louis Couperus
Set in the stifling world of turn of the century Dutch aristocracy, the second volume of the 'Books of the Small Souls' quartet, begins wher…
Kamakura
Read by Phil Benson
Yone Noguchi
'Kamakura is nothing if she has no history, writes Japanese novelist, poet, and essayist Yone Noguchi. At the turn of the 20th century, Kama…
The Twilight of the Souls
Read by Phil Benson
Louis Couperus
The third book in Louis Couperus' Books of the Small Souls quartet. The Twilight of the Souls begins some months after the conclusion of The…
Art in Australia, No. 1, 1916
Read by Phil Benson
Various
In 1916, three prominent identities in the Sydney art world - Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens and Charles Lloyd Jones - got together to pu…
Art in Australia, No. 2, 1917
Read by Phil Benson
Various
In 1916, three prominent identities in the Sydney art world - Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens and Charles Lloyd Jones - got together to pu…
Poems of Emile Verhaeren
Read by Phil Benson
Emile Verhaeren
A selection of poems from Belgian symbolist poet Émile Verhaeren, translated from French by Alma Strettell. Most of the poems selecte…
Dr. Adriaan
Read by Phil Benson
Louis Couperus
The fourth and final book in Louis Couperus' Books of the Small Souls quartet. Ten years have passed since the conclusion of The Twilight of…
Allan's Wife and Other Tales
Read by Phil Benson
H. Rider Haggard
In 1885, H. Rider Haggard introduced Allan Quatermain, elephant hunter extraordinaire, in his best-selling African adventure novel 'King Sol…
To the Lighthouse (Version 2)
Read by Phil Benson
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf's classic modernist novel explores the lives and thoughts of the Ramsays and their guests at the family's summer home on the …
The Evergreen, A Northern Seasonal. Spring 1895
Read by Phil Benson
William Sharp
The Evergreen was a short lived seasonal magazine, edited by William Sharp (Fiona Macleod) and published by Patrick Geddes, which proposed a…
Every Man His Own Art Critic
Read by Phil Benson
Patrick Geddes
This collection includes two texts written to accompany two blockbuster art exhibitions: Every man his own art critic at the Manchester Exhi…
War Impressions: Being a Record in Colour
Read by Phil Benson
Mortimer Menpes
A personal account of the second Boer War by Australian expatriate artist Mortimer Menpes. Menpes travelled to South Africa as a corresponde…
The Hampdenshire Wonder
Read by Phil Benson
J. D. Beresford
By the age of three, Victor Stott's intellectual powers exceed those of any known human. He is the Hampdenshire Wonder, son of an extraordin…
Poems by Charles Harpur
Read by Phil Benson
Charles Harpur
Charles Harpur was arguably the first major Australia-born poet, best known for Australia-themed poems such as 'The Kangaroo Hunt' and the '…
Sydney Past and Present
Read by Phil Benson
John Arthur Barry
An account of the early history of Sydney, Australia's first colonial city. Best known for his collection of light-hearted yarns, Steve Brow…
'To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf: Contemporary Reviews (1927)
Read by Phil Benson
Various
Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was published in May 1927 in both Britain and the United States. The publication of Mrs. Dalloway a year …
Mr. Moffatt
Read by Phil Benson
Chester Francis Cobb
Mr. Moffatt owns a chemist's business in suburban Sydney, Australia, where he lives with his wife, Florence, and adult daughter, Naomi. The …
When the Birds Fly South
Read by Phil Benson
Stanton A. Coblentz
Dan Prescott, an American adventurer, discovers the hidden valley of Sobul in a mountainous region of Afghanistan, inhabited by a strange ra…
Song of Myself
Read by Phil Benson
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman's best known poem - a vast and multitudinous celebration of American life in which the 'myself' of the title becomes at one wit…
Little Johannes
Read by Phil Benson
Frederik van Eeden and Frederik Van Eeden
In this allegory of childhood and youth, a series of increasingly sinister mentors - Windekind, Wistik, Pluizer and Dr. Cypher - guide the a…
The Festive Wreath
Read by Phil Benson
Various
The Festive Wreath, edited by John Bolton Rogerson, and subtitled 'A Collection of Contributions Read at a Literary Meeting Held in Manchest…
Venice
Read by Phil Benson
Mortimer Menpes and Dorothy Menpes
Following his assignment to South Africa as Black and White Magazine's war artist, Mortimer Menpes travelled extensively, becoming the artis…
The Lady Macbeth of the Mzinsk District
Read by Phil Benson
Nikolai Leskov
In Mzinsk, a remote Russian town, adultery is Katerina's relief from boredom. Before long she has developed a passion for he lover, Sergei, …
Orlando, A Biography (version 3)
Read by Phil Benson
Virginia Woolf and John Cowper Powys
Virginia Woolf's most successful novel recounts the extraordinary biography of Orlando from his youth in the reign of Elizabeth I to her lif…
Ancient Songs and Ballads of Lancashire
Read by Phil Benson
John Harland
Traditional songs and ballads from Lancashire in the north-west of England from the opening section of John Harland's collection, Ballads an…