By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What does the word ‘sinister’ have to do with being left-handed? And what was the meaning of the word ‘ambidextrous’ when it was first coined? And what…| Interesting Literature
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Stolen Bacillus’ is an 1894 short story by the British writer H. G. Wells (1866-1946). Between the mid-1890s and the mid-1900s, Wells wrote much of his best work, with a strong commitment to storytelling perfectly wedded to interesting ideas and theories. To summarise the plot of ‘The Stolen ... Read more| Interesting Literature
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘A Deal in Ostriches’ is a short tale by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), originally published on 20 December 1894 in the Pall Mall Gazette before being republished in Wells’s first short-story collection, The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, a year later. ‘A Deal in Ostriches’ takes place on board ... Read more| Interesting Literature
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘While the Auto Waits’ is a short story by O. Henry (1862-1910), the American author known for his twist endings. The story focuses on an encounter between a man and a woman on a park bench, with the story’s major themes being social class and the gulf between appearance ... Read more| Interesting Literature
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Hammerpond Park Burglary’ is not one of the best-known short stories by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), but in my determination to read all of his short fiction I thought it worth recording my comments on this slight piece of fiction, even though it has no elements of fantasy ... Read more| Interesting Literature
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The word ‘girl’, like many everyday words which we might assume have perfectly ordinary and straightforward histories, actually has a surprising etymol…| Interesting Literature
