James Wilby

The Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope - The Prisoner of Zenda (1894), by Anthony Hope, is an adventure novel in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in order for the king to retain the crown, his coronation must proceed. Fortuitously, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania who resembles the monarch is persuaded to act as...

First published in 1926, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is the fascinating and brutal account of the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918 by T. E. Lawrence, more famously known as "Lawrence of Arabia". Written, rewritten, and edited over a period of several years from 1919 to 1926, Lawrence recounts his time serving in the British Forces in North Africa when he was based in Wadi Rum. He describes his role assisting in the organization and carrying out of attacks...

George Sherston - the 'I' of the book - is a shy, sensitive, and rather lonely boy living on the Kent/Sussex border in the early years of the 20th century. His great loves are sports, horses and hunting, and the story is told through his gentle and comic adventures at point-to-point races or village cricket matches in a privileged pre-War England. The picture he paints of the Garden of England in the age of pony carts, bicycles and very slow trains...