Books published by publisher Horse's Mouth

Lucy Fitch Perkins was forty-eight when she was approached by a publisher friend who, impressed by her talents as both an illustrator and writer, which he knew through correspondence, urged her to write. He was so earnest that she thought of an idea for a children’s book the next morning, and she immediately set to work making sketches and preparing the idea for presentation. The publisher came to dinner at their house the next evening and she showed him the idea. His response was immediate “go ahead and write it, and I want it”. That book was The Dutch Twins, the first in what became a long running and wildly popular series. Here we publish another in that series, this time the historical 'The Cave Twins'.

The great author of Vanity Fair and The Luck Of Barry Lyndon was born in India in 1811. At age 5 his father died and his mother sent him back to England. His education was of the best but he himself seemed unable to apply his talents to a rigorous work ethic. However, once he harnessed his talents the works flowed in novels, articles, short stories, sketches and lectures. Sadly, his personal life was rather more difficult. After a few years of marriage his wife began to suffer from depression and over the years became detached from reality. Thackeray himself suffered from ill health later in his life and the one pursuit that kept him moving forward was that of writing. In his life time, he was placed second only to Dickens. High praise indeed.

Philip Edward Thomas was born on 3rd March, 1878 at 14 Lansdowne Gardens in Stockwell, Lambeth, which was then a part of Surrey. His family had a rich Welsh heritage.Thomas was educated at Battersea Grammar School before proceeding to St Paul's School in London and then becoming a history scholar, between 1898-1900, at Lincoln College, Oxford. Whilst still studying for his degree he married Helen Berenice Noble in June, 1899, in Fulham, London. Thomas had already decided by this time to fashion a career out of literature. As a book reviewer he reviewed in the order of fifteen books a week and began to be published as both a literary critic, for the Daily Chronicle, and as a biographer. His writing talents also extended to writing on the countryside and, in 1913, a novel, The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans was published. Thomas is also responsible for the shepherding and mentoring of the career of maverick tramp poet W. H. Davies during the early years of the 20th Century. Despite Davies’s years of wanderlust he was encouraged to take up accommodation in a small cottage near to where Thomas, Helen and his family lived at Elses Farm, near Sevenoaks in Kent. Ironically although Thomas believed that poetry was the highest form of literature and reviewed poetry books often it was only in 1914 that he began to write poetry himself. By this time, he was living at Steep, East Hampshire, and his early poems were published under the pseudonym of ‘Edward Eastaway’. The American poet Robert Frost, who was living in England at the time, went to some lengths to encourage Thomas to continue writing poetry. Their friendship became so close that they planned to reside side by side in the United States. Frost's classic poem, "The Road Not Taken", was inspired by his long walks with Thomas and the latter’s indecisiveness about which route to take. Thomas wrote several revered poems. For many his lines on the now abandoned railway station at Adlestrop, written after his train made a stop at the Cotswolds station on 24th June, 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War are his best. Europe was now to be engulfed in a monumental armed struggle and many writers, poets and painters heeded the call to become part of the tide of humanity to serve their countries. Thomas enlisted in the Artists Rifles in July 1915, despite being a mature married man who could have avoided enlisting without too much difficulty. He was promoted to corporal, and by November 1916 had been commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a second lieutenant. Philip Edward Thomas was killed in action soon after his arrival in France at Arras on Easter Monday, 9th April 1917. To soften the blow to his widow Helen, a fiction was concocted of a "bloodless death"; that Thomas was killed by the concussive blast wave from an exploding shell as he stood to light his pipe and that there was no mark on his body. (It was only decades later that a letter from his commanding officer, Franklin Lushington, written in 1936, was discovered stating that Thomas had been "shot clean through the chest".)W. H. Davies was devastated by the death and his commemorative poem "Killed In Action (Edward Thomas)" is a moving tribute to the loss of his friend. Thomas is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Agny in France (Row C, Grave 43). As a poet Thomas’s career was short buat he has been grouped with the War Poets though his output of war poems is short in number, especially when set against those that feature the countryside. Aside from his poems and a novel Thomas wrote frequent essays and a number of travel books.On Armistice Day, 11th November, 1985, Thomas was among the 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner.

Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci, or more familiarly known as Baroness Emmuska Orczy, was born on September 23rd, 1865, in Tarnaörs, Heves County, Hungary. The family lived in their ancestral home; a great, rambling farmhouse on the river Tarna. Emmuska’s memories of the time were of sophisticated parties, sparkling conversation, joyful dancing and gypsy music. But soon fear of a peasant uprising meant their moving to Budapest and then 12 years of semi-nomadic travels across Europe. Arriving in London in 1880 Emmuska, aged 15, was studying painting and, a few years later, had them chosen for exhibition at the Royal Academy. London, she felt, was home, her spiritual birthplace. Art school also provided a husband. It was here she met a young illustrator, Montague Barstow, the son of an English clergyman. Fearful of mediocrity she plunged headlong into a writing career. And in the weeks after the birth of her son wrote the adventure classic for which she is so famed: The Scarlet Pimpernel. Originally rejected, after being re-worked as a successful play it was published as a book in 1905 and was an instant best-seller. In the coming years they lived on an estate in Kent, a busy and tasteful London home and an extravagant villa in Monte Carlo. All the while Emmuska’s pen continued to write adventures for that elusive hero; Sir Percy Blakeney. In 1934, the famed movie producer Alexander Korda turned it into a film starring Leslie Howard. The quintessential Pimpernel of everyone’s imagination now made visual reality. Baroness Orczy at the age of 82, died on November 12th, 1947 at Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire.

Herbert George Wells was born on September 21st, 1866 at Atlas House, 46 High Street, Bromley, Kent. He was the youngest of four siblings and his family affectionately knew him as ‘Bertie’. The first few years of his childhood were spent fairly quietly, and Wells didn’t display much literary interest until, in 1874, he accidentally broke his leg and was left to recover in bed, largely entertained by the library books his father regularly brought him. Through these Wells found he could escape the boredom and misery of his bed and convalescence by exploring the new worlds he encountered in these books. From these humble beginnings began a career that was, after several delays, to be seen as one of the most brilliant of modern English writers. Able to write comfortably in a number of genres he was especially applauded for his science fiction works such as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds but his forays into the social conditions of the times, with classics such as Kipps, were almost as commercially successful. His short stories are miniature masterpieces many of which bring new and incredible ideas of science fiction to the edge of present day science fact. Wells also received four nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Despite a strong and lasting second marriage his affairs with other women also brought the complications of fathering other children. His writings and work against fascism, as well as the promotion of socialism, brought him into increasing doubts with and opposition to religion. His writings on what the world could be in works, such as A Modern Utopia, are thought provoking as well as being plausible, especially when viewed from the distressing times they were written in. His diabetic condition pushed him to create what is now the largest Diabetes charity in the United Kingdom. Wells even found the time to run twice for Parliament. It was a long, distinguished and powerfully successful career by the time he died, aged 79, on August 13th, 1946.

Wilkie Collins was born on January 8th, 1824 at 11 New Cavendish Street in Marylebone, London. A novelist, playwright and author of short stories, William Wilkie Collins was a popular figure in Victorian literature which was further enhanced by his charm and flamboyant lifestyle. He was a friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens. His own talents outshone most other literary figures and he is credited with the introduction of the modern detective story with ‘The Woman In White’. Other achievements were ‘The Moonstone’, ‘All Year Round’ and ‘Amadale’. In all Wilkie Collins wrote some 30 novels, 14 plays, over 60 short stories and at least 100 nonfiction essays. He died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, at 82 Wimpole Street, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in West London. Catharine Graves is buried with him, following her death in 1895. Here we publish ‘The Frozen Deep’ originally a play that was guided in its writing by Charles Dickens and who also performed in as well. It didn’t perform as hoped and so Collins re-wrote it entirely to give us the novella which is before you.

F. Anstey was the pseudonym of Thomas Anstey Guthrie who was born in Kensington, London on August 8th, 1856, to Augusta Amherst Austen, an organist and composer, and Thomas Anstey Guthrie., a prosperous military tailor. Anstey was educated at King's College School and then at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Although his education was first rate Anstey could only manage a third-class degree; A Gentlemen’s degree as it was euphemistically known. In 1880 he was called to the bar. However this career path rapidly fell away in his desire to become an author. The successful publication of Vice Versa, in 1882, with the premise of a substitution of a father for his schoolboy son, made his name and reputation as a refreshing and original humorist. The following year he published a rather more serious work, The Giant's Robe. Interestingly the story is about a plagiarist and Anstey was, ironically, accused of plagiarism in writing the work. Despite good reviews both he and his public knew that his writing career was to be that of a humorist. In the following years he published prolifically beginning with; The Black Poodle (1884), The Tinted Venus (1885), A Fallen Idol (1886), and Baboo Jabberjee B.A. (1897). Anstey worked not only as a novelist and short story writer but was also a valued member of the staff at the humorous Punch magazine, in which his voces populi and his parodies of a reciter's stock-piece (Burglar Bill) represent perhaps his best work. In 1901, his successful farce, The Man from Blankleys, based on a story that originally appeared in Punch, was first produced on stage at the Prince of Wales Theatre, in London. Anstey had become a writer, and a successful one at that, of many talents. Many more of his stories were made into plays and films over the years. Others were simply taken for the premise alone, usually with no credit to the original author. By the end of the First World War Anstey’s original publications had slowed to a crawl and he seemed rather more interested in translating and publishing some works of Moliere. Thomas Anstey Guthrie died of pneumonia on March 10th, 1934 in London. His self-deprecating autobiography, A Long Retrospect, was published in 1936.

The great author of Vanity Fair and The Luck Of Barry Lyndon was born in India in 1811. At age 5 his father died and his mother sent him back to England. His education was of the best but he himself seemed unable to apply his talents to a rigorous work ethic. However, once he harnessed his talents the works flowed in novels, articles, short stories, sketches and lectures. Sadly, his personal life was rather more difficult. After a few years of marriage his wife began to suffer from depression and over the years became detached from reality. Thackeray himself suffered from ill health later in his life and the one pursuit that kept him moving forward was that of writing. In his life time, he was placed second only to Dickens. High praise indeed.

Lucy Fitch Perkins was forty-eight when she was approached by a publisher friend who, impressed by her talents as both an illustrator and writer, which he knew through correspondence, urged her to write. He was so earnest that she thought of an idea for a children’s book the next morning, and she immediately set to work making sketches and preparing the idea for presentation. The publisher came to dinner at their house the next evening and she showed him the idea. His response was immediate “go ahead and write it, and I want it”. That book was The Dutch Twins, the first in what became a long running and wildly popular series. Here we publish another in the series 'The Belgian Twins'.

Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton was born on May 25th, 1803 the youngest of three sons. When Edward was four his father died and his mother moved the family to London. As a child he was delicate and neurotic and failed to fit in at any number of boarding schools. However, he was academically and creatively precocious and, as a teenager, he published his first work; Ishmael and Other Poems in 1820. In 1822 he entered university at Cambridge and in 1825 he won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for English verse for Sculpture. The following year he received his B.A. degree and printed, for private circulation, the small volume of poems, Weeds and Wild Flowers. During his career he was to be extremely prolific and write across a number of genres; historical fiction, mystery, romance, the occult, and science fiction as well as poetry. In 1828 his novel, Pelham, brought him an income, as well as a commercial and critical reputation. The books intricate plot and humorous, intimate portrayals kept many a gossip busy trying to pair up public figures with characters in the book. Bulwer-Lytton reached, perhaps, the height of his popularity with the publication of Godolphin (1833), followed by The Pilgrims of the Rhine (1834), The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), Rienzi, Last of the Roman Tribunes (1835), and Harold, the Last of the Saxons (1848). In 1841, he started the Monthly Chronicle, a semi-scientific magazine. The Victorian era was filled with many magazines and periodicals all of whom had a great fascination to chronicle and publish the many things that the Empire and Industrial Revolution were discovering, inventing and changing. In 1858 he entered Lord Derby's government as Secretary of State for the Colonies. He took an active interest in the development of the Crown Colony of British Columbia and wrote with great passion to the Royal Engineers upon assigning them their duties there. In 1866 Bulwer-Lytton was raised to the peerage as Baron Lytton of Knebworth in the County of Hertford but his passion for politics now somewhat dimmed. Bulwer-Lytton had long suffered with a disease of the ear and for the last two or three years of his life he lived in Torquay nursing his health. An operation to cure his deafness resulted in an abscess forming in his ear which later burst. Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton endured intense pain for a week and died at 2am on January 18th, 1873, in Torquay, just short of his 70th birthday.

The great author of Vanity Fair and The Luck Of Barry Lyndon was born in India in 1811. At age 5 his father died and his mother sent him back to England. His education was of the best but he himself seemed unable to apply his talents to a rigorous work ethic. However, once he harnessed his talents the works flowed in novels, articles, short stories, sketches and lectures. Sadly, his personal life was rather more difficult. After a few years of marriage his wife began to suffer from depression and over the years became detached from reality. Thackeray himself suffered from ill health later in his life and the one pursuit that kept him moving forward was that of writing. In his life time, he was placed second only to Dickens. High praise indeed.

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, on 26th July 1894.He was educated for a time by his mother and then entered Oxford University and obtained a degree in English Literature.As a young man he contracted the eye disease keratitis punctate, that left him, to all intents, blind for almost three years until partial sight was restored. It was to trouble him for the rest of his life.During the First World War, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor, near Oxford, working as a farm labourer where he met several members of the Bloomsbury set. In 1919 he met and quickly married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys. Their son, Matthew, was born on 19th April 1920.By now he had written several volumes of poetry and some short stories. Now he pursued novels.In ‘Crome Yellow’ (1921) he caricatured the Garsington lifestyle. He followed up with further social satires, ‘Antic Hay’ (1923), ‘Those Barren Leaves’ (1925), and ‘Point Counter Point’ (1928).In 1937 Huxley moved to Hollywood with his wife and child. He would live in the U.S., mainly in southern California, and for a time in Taos, New Mexico, until his death. As a Hollywood screenwriter Huxley used much of his earnings to bring Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US. He worked for many of the major studios including MGM and Disney. In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for United States citizenship. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S. and would not state his objections, he had to withdraw his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the U.S. In the spring of 1953, Huxley had his first experience with the psychedelic drug mescaline. Undoubtedly, he was drawn to their mind-altering powers and was a firm believer thereafter.In 1955, Maria Huxley died of cancer.The following year, 1956, Huxley married Laura Archera, also an author, as well as a violinist and psychotherapist. She would later write ‘This Timeless Moment’, a biography of Huxley.Huxley was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1960; in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the Utopian novel ‘Island’, and gave lectures on "Human Potentialities". On his deathbed, unable to speak due to advanced laryngeal cancer, Huxley made a written request to Laura for "LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular." She obliged with an injection at 11:20 a.m. and a second dose an hour later; Aldous Leonard Huxley died aged 69, at 5:20 p.m. on 22nd November 1963.