Available post-free in the UK for 9.99 from the publisher, www.lifeisamazing.co.uk.This new edition of this excellent book has been carefully edited and the type reset to modern standards. It is not a facsimile reprint, many of which also reproduce marks and flaws in the text from the pages they are copied from, but has been completely freshly set and presented. The book contains the photographs that were included in the first edition, and has a foreword by Portsmouth historian Matt Wingett, putting Father Dolling's work in the context not only of its time, but also reflecting the modern state of the city. It is thus a unique work, faithful to the original, but presented to make it easy to use for the modern reader and scholar. Father Robert Dolling was an extraordinary figure who had a profound influence on the society, morals, education and health of the people of Landport, Portsmouth between 1885 and 1895. Sent to the town to start a mission and revive the influence of the Church, he entered a wild, untamed corner of the kingdom where drinking, violence, prostitution and vice of all sorts proliferated in its dark, tight and stinking streets. Over a period of ten years, Dolling fought to help families who wanted a better life, building friendships, spreading hope - and raising Saint Agatha's - a large basilica-style church at the very heart of the quarter. Filled with wonderful Portsmouth characters and vivid descriptions of Landport life told in Dolling's unique voice, Ten Years In A Portsmouth Slum gives a rare insight into the lives of some of the poorest of the poor in this sometimes violent, always vibrant naval town. With a brand new foreword by Portsmouth historian and writer, Matt Wingett.

Ten Years In A Portsmouth Slum - The True Life Account of a Victorian Missionary's Work in a Deprived English Town (Illustrated)

History

Dolling, Robert

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Life Is Amazing

Conan Doyle And The Mysterious World of Light traces the spiritualist career of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle between the years 1887 and 1920. Starting with his early psychic investigations in Southsea, it tracks his development from a fascinated dilettante to becoming the mouthpiece of a world movement. Throughout these years, Light, a magazine dedicated to the mystical and occult traced his journey, not least by the letters and articles he wrote exclusively for the magazine. It was and still is the organ of the London Spiritualist Alliance, now known as the College for Psychic Studies. Every article and letter Conan Doyle wrote for the magazine during this period is here reproduced, often for the first time, as well as correspondence and articles bearing on his own writings. The book thus tells the story of Conan Doyle's Spiritualism while surrounding his writing with the discussions, debates and controversies of his time. It sets his belief in the context of his powerful imagination which created the iconic Sherlock Holmes, his indefatigable energy which made him such an effective missionary and all against the backdrop of the Great War, which was a powerful impetus for his public declaration of faith in 1916. For the question of how the creator of the arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes also came to believe in ghosts, this book holds the fascinating answers.

Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light: 1887-1920 (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Paranormal)

Biographies & Memoirs

Wingett, Matt

Arts & Literature

Lake Allen's History of Portsmouth was the first full history of Portsea Island and its surroundings. Written in 1817 by an 18-year-old amateur historian, the book's scope is phenomenal. From the Anglo-Saxon invasion in 501 AD, Allen relates Portesmuth's early struggles, before tracing its growing importance to successive monarchs. Historical events affecting the whole country are told, including the Empress Matilda's arrival to wage war on King Stephen for England's throne; John Felton's murder of the Duke of Buckingham; Charles II's marriage near Portsmouth High Street - and much more besides. Details of everyday nineteenth century Portsmouth life abound, including the marking of Parish boundaries in antiquated ceremonies which took the Mayor and his officials through private residences; the bathing machines on Southsea beach; and even the cost of transporting sheep to the Isle of Wight. This new edition has been edited and completely reset, with a foreword by Portsmouth historian, Matt Wingett.

The History of Portsmouth: Containing a Full and Enlarged Account of its Ancient and Present State; with Particular Descriptions of the Dock-Yard, ... the Most Remarkable Places in the (Heritage)

Literature & Fiction

Allen, Lake

Literary

By Celia's Arbour: A Tale of Portsmouth Town (Heritage)

Rice, James

Besant, Sir Walter

"Why did the man who created Sherlock Holmes believe in ghosts?”  From early in his medical career, Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated by the paranormal. As a young doctor in Southsea, he investigated séances, telepathy and hypnosis and in 1887, the year of his first Sherlock Holmes novel, he became convinced of spirit communication.  Even as Holmes’s fame grew, Conan Doyle investigated poltergeists, automatic writing and spirit photography. Then, in 1916, as the Great War’s death toll mounted, he announced to an astonished his belief in Spiritualism, all the while, continuing to  produce stories starring his ultra-rational consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes.  In Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light:    Trace Conan Doyle’s thinking as he grapples with paranormal phenomena and reaches the extraordinary conclusion that they are real.  Read his own account of speaking with his dead son, Kingsley, and making physical contact with his manifested spirit.  Discover why Conan Doyle was accused of “necromancy” by Press and Church.  Find out how H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw and others were drawn into the debate.  Follow Conan Doyle’s journey to becoming an international missionary and leader of a world movement.   The first in a three-part series tracing his belief in Spiritualism, Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light is a detailed, entertaining true history. Includes newspaper reports, biographies of key figures, glossary, index, bibliography - and every article and letter he wrote for the Spiritualist magazine Light between 1887 and 1920, many of which have never been published in book form.

Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light, 1887-1920 (Hardback Edition) (Conan Doyle and the Paranormal)

Recollections of John Pounds: With additional contemporary newspaper extracts (Heritage)

Hawkes, Henry

Professionals & Academics

The Snow Witch (Hardback / Jacket): A Portsmouth Novel

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Fantasy

Portsmouth - A Literary and Pictorial Tour

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

DICKENS., CHARLES

Europe

Available post-free in the UK from the publisher's website, www.lifeisamazing.co.uk.  When in 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual included a story about a brilliant consulting detective written by an obscure doctor living in Southsea, Portsmouth, nobody could have predicted the massive influence Sherlock Holmes would have on the world of detective fiction. Perhaps that's why the cheap book bound in fragile paper wraps was discarded by so many Victorian households after the Christmas season was over. Famously, there are just 34 copies still in existence, of which 11 are complete, making the prospect of owning an original virtually impossible for the Sherlock Holmes collector. Drawn from limited edition reprints whose copyright has now expired, this unlimited edition contains all the pages of the original edition. Including the original adverts and the accompanying works, this book is a fascinating historical document - and an affordable choice for the lover of all things Sherlock.

Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 Facsimile Edition: including A Study In Scarlet, Food For Powder, The Four-Leaved Shamrock

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Andre, R

Hamilton, C J

Mystery

ABC of the RAF

Hammerton, John

Military

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