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Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist who was also a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The House of Strange Stories' is the tale of an evening after dinner when the various members of a house party take turns to relate a ghost story which they have experienced themselves. The stories become stranger and stranger as the evening goes on.

A young novelist is in the process of serialising a racy novel in the Fleet Street Magazine. It tells the story of a Duchess who murders her husband by giving him cheap sherry, in the knowledge that his constitution will not stand such rough liquor. The author is surprised to find a mysterious advertisement in the personal column of The Times which addresses the author of the sherry story and exhorts him to contact a certain firm of solicitors. On making enquiries, the author is invited to a remote stately home to stay with a genuine mysterious duchess who also harbours a guilty secret.

Three princes are sent on a quest by their father, to find who it is who steals the golden apples from the King's tree. The youngest son befriends a wolf who is in reality a magician. From the wolf he learns that a magical golden bird is the thief. In attempting to steal the golden bird, the prince is captured by its owner, the Emperor. The latter agrees to spare the prince's life if he can steal the golden horse from the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom. In attempting to do this the prince is again captured.

'The Donkey Skin' is a strange fairy tale of a princess who escapes an unwanted marriage by running away from the palace dressed in a donkey skin, to a hard life of poverty as a hen-wife. When a young prince happens to catch a glimpse of her without her donkey skin, he falls in love with her. But how is he to find the beautiful maiden again?

'The Bronze Ring' is a story in which a princess falls in love with the son of the palace gardener, although her father wishes her to marry the son of his Prime Minister. The King devises a quest for the two suitors and attempts to engineer the situation so that the rich youth will win. But the gardener's son does a good deed to an old woman, who in return helps him win a magic ring which will grant wishes. But the youth's adventures are not over when he marries the princess. The ring is stolen, and he must enlist the aid of some very clever mice to get it back.

'The Two Frogs' is the story of two amphibians who live in different cities in Japan. Each desires to see the world, so each sets out on a journey towards the other's home city. When they meet at the top of a mountain, the two frogs make friends and devise a plan to work out whether their journey is worthwhile - with unintended consequences.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist, best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The Three Dogs' tells the story of a shepherd who trades his three sheep with a stranger for three dogs with magical powers. The dogs are able to help him slay a dragon and win a princess.

The Frog is a variant on the Frog Princess. Three brothers are told by their mother to set specific tasks for their sweethearts to complete, to see whether they will make suitable brides. The youngest lad does not know any girls, but a mystery frog proves amazingly adept at all the trials set her by her future mother-in-law.

The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground is the tale of a king who goes to extreme lengths to safeguard his daughter from potential suitors unworthy of her hand. But one cunning young lad manages to outwit the king by disguising himself as a sheep.

The Stonecutter is a fairy tale Lang collected in Japan. A stonecutter sees how rich people live when he is delivering a gravestone one day. From that day on he is dissatisfied with his own lot and wishes to be rich. His wish is granted by the spirit that lives in the mountain...but the stonecutter is still not satisfied with his life and makes further wishes, each taking him a little further on his quest for happiness.

Six 10-minute stories that are a delight to listen to.

An entertaining retelling of this classic folk tale from Arabian Nights.

Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861) was one of the great Victorian explorers. In 1860 he was appointed to lead the Victorian Exploring Expedition, which aimed to cross the Australian continent from south to north. The expedition left Melbourne on Monday, 20 August 1860 with a total of 19 men, 27 (rum fuelled) camels, and 23 horses. The expedition was dogged by disputes and poor leadership decisions from the start. Even at the first staging post the second in command and the medical officer resigned.

On 28 May, 1828, a boy of around 16 appeared in the Bavarian city of Nuremburg holding a letter in his hand. The lad was unable to speak, apart from three odd phrases which he repeated parrot-like, one of which was: "Want to be a soldier, as father was." The letter, addressed to the captain of the local infantry regiment, told a bizarre story. It appeared that the boy had been kept shut up in isolation in the dark for his entire life, had never learned to speak and knew nothing of the world.

"Why the Sea Is Salt" is a fairy tale narrative that explains in fictional form how the sea came to be salty. It all started with a poor farmer with information he did not share. A moral tale for all ages.

Grasp All, Lose All tells the story of a poor oil-seller in India named Dena, who is in debt to a banker for three hundred rupees. This banker persists in harassing Dena and his wife so much that Dena decides to run away, not knowing where he will go. He climbs a tree to sleep and wakes up the next morning not in the forest in which he went to sleep but on a deserted beach.

The son of the Gardener to the King and the King's daughter fall in love. The King wants his daughter to marry the Prime Minister's son. So the two young men have to enter a contest: Whoever travels to a distant land and comes back first, wins the hand of the Princess.

From 1889 to 1910, Scottish author and journalist Andrew Lang collected more than four hundred fairy tales from sources throughoutthe world. Organized into twelve volumes, he distinguished each by the color of the book cover. Included in this audiobook is "How to Tell a True Princess" from The Yellow Fairy Book. Originally written by Hans Christian Anderson under the title "The Princess and the Pea," this is the story of a prince and his quest to find a true princess.

There was an old couple who were not able to have children and so they constantly prayed to be blessed with one - even one the size of a hazelnut. And that is exactly what they were given - a child the size of a hazelnut who never grew! When he reached the age of 15, his mother asked him what he planned on doing with his life, as he was so small but clever. He replied that he wanted to be a messenger, a thing which made his mother laugh because of his size. He proved her wrong though and showed that he could use his size as an advantage.

A village was being plagued by a witch in the form of a hawk and three brothers tried to stop her. The older two failed, but the youngest was able to shoot down the hawk and he found a strange abyss where the hawk was shot down. With the help of his brothers, he descends into the abyss and finds a palace full of beautiful princesses and boundless treasure. He discovers that the witch is their mother and she must be killed in order for the princesses to be freed from the underground prison they are being held in.