All Articles

Taken from James Joyce’s collection of short stories, ‘Dubliners’, ‘Eveline’ is about a girl who is torn between the duty she feels to her difficult but helpless father and the love she feels for a man who can give her a new life in a new country. (1,715 words)

This story, from Joyce’s collection of short stories called ‘Dubliners’, introduces the reader to two young men who are not as respectable as they should be. Exploiting girls by trading on their feelings, they enjoy themselves at their expense and seem to have no conscience about doing so. (2,800 words)

Edith Wharton's novels deal with the differences in society’s expectations of the behaviour of men and women. They often tend end tragically but this story focuses more comic attention on a woman who has two ex-husbands and describes what happens when they re-enter her new family’s life. (5,075 words)

Saki's miserable childhood, brought up by his aunts in a very strict home, is reflected in this story where a child’s life and imagination is suppressed by a thoughtlessly cruel guardian. It is told, however, with Saki’s usual sense of humour and ends with a surprise for the reader. (1,520 words)

One of Katherine Mansfield's finest short stories that highlights the contempt with which the upper-middle class viewed the poor. While preparations for the garden party are tasteful and well-considered, the more important sensitivity to the welfare of their poor neighbours is lacking. (4,165 words)

Sherlock Holmes is visited by a man who tells him about a society that financially supported people with red hair in pointless but lucrative employment but then disappeared owing him money. Holmes decides to get to the bottom of the mystery. (4,445 words).

Pi is one of the most important and strangest ideas in mathematics. It can't be exactly calculated and it is both irrational and transcendental. What does that mean? Find out here! (700 words)

A short history of rugby and the rules of the game. It all started by accident during the 19th century at an English public school called Rugby, hence its name, and it's been growing in popularity ever since.

The Washington Sniper took his ex-girlfriend’s teenage son out one day in 2002 and started shooting people he had never seen before and did not know from the back of his car. All to cover up the planned murder of his wife. (995 words)

Wigs have a long history. The Romans and ancient Egyptians wore them. Three hundred years ago wigs were really heavy and worn mainly by men. Now they're worn more by popstars and people who have lost their hair through illness. (750 words)

Crime is just as real in wartime as it is in peace. This article looks at how crime changed during the Second World War in Britain and how some crimes disappeared while others became more common. (700 words)

A few hundred years ago, a diplomat in Istanbul fell in love with a flower not found in western Europe. He sent some tulip bulbs home so that his friends could grow them in their gardens. Some time later tulips became a craze in Holland and people even bought and sold the bulbs while they were still in the ground as prices rose higher and higher. Then, suddenly, it all stopped and many people lost everything. (890 words)

Jimmy Thorpe’ is not well-known today but he was a goalkeeper for Sunderland football club in the 1930s. He died when he was 23 after a heart attack caused by being kicked while he had the ball in his hands. The rules of the game were changed as a result (290 words).

A handsome young man falls in love with a mysterious lady who seems to hide some great secret. When she will not tell him what it is, he leaves her. Some time later he finds out that the secret was not so mysterious after all but it is too late. (1,785 words)

A Ponzi scheme is one that gives an incredibly high interest rate because it uses money from new investors to pay dividends to existing investors. Charles Ponzi was a charming and enterprising con man who robbed thousands of people of their savings before his scheme collapsed and he went to prison for the last time. (1,530 words)