Meet Flush, an English cocker spaniel who belongs to the nineteenth-century poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. He likes to spend his days lazing about the house with his sick human, watching everything that happens in the house - especially this new visitor who seems to be taking more and more of the attention away from Flush. 
Virginia Woolf learned about Flush from letters written between Elizabeth and her future husband Robert Browning, and found "the figure of their dog made me laugh so, I couldn't resist making him a Life."  What emerged was a delightful 'biography' of Flush - taking the classic 'a day in the life of a dog' essay to new heights. Told from Flush's jealous perspective, we see romance blossom between the two poets; from courtship into elopement. We see Flush struggle to adapt to the changing attentions of his human - not to mention a close scrape with evil dog-nappers! This is a highly entertaining story that will especially appeal to dog-lovers. Written with sparkling wit and energy, Woolf manages to capture the joy and confusion of this beloved dog. 
Blending fact and fiction, this is a charming tale of friendship and love. Flush's voice is fresh and fun, reminding us that dogs really are a person's best friend.
"She loved Flush, and Flush was worthy of her love."

By Rebekah Wade

According to Italo Calvino, a classic is a book that everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read. That's fair. No matter how many times I try, for example, to read Ulysses by James Joyce I just can't get past chapter three. And even the thought of being able to brag that "I've read Ulysses, you know" can't seem to drive me forward. But that seems to be part of the problem. We are told over and over that we should read this book or that, that we forget that underneath it all is a collection of truly great stories. It doesn't help that over the years classics have been clad in hideously outdated covers. I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but, we definitely do. And if given the choice between a tattered copy of Gatsby that features a dark, obscure painting on the cover or a bright yellow, modern looking Sarah Crossan novel - well that's not even a choice. 
Yet once you jump those hurdles, the stories you find are enthralling, outrageous, and addictive. 
There is a reason that a classic is a classic. It is a story about people. Though the world we live may change, or our beliefs alter, the human condition at its essence is unchanging. We still feel love, grief, loneliness, excitement, fear, jealousy, joy.. we feel. And classic stories are stories of emotions, of impulses. We may not know what it feels like to be branded with the letter A (The Scarlett Letter) but we understand feeling like we don't fit in. We may not meet talking horses on our journeys (Gulliver's Travels) but we recognize the desire to travel the world. 
There is also the joy of iconic characters. Who doesn't love the image of a jilted woman in a mouldy wedding dress just hanging out at her rotten wedding feast seen in the form of Miss Havisham (Great Expectations)? Or what about the charming, quick witted Lizzie Bennett who tames the proud Mr Darcy (Pride & Prejudice)​? In classic fiction, we meet characters who stay with us.
Reading classic literature is not without its problems. What do we do when a classic, which has been given the stamp of approval, has racism or sexism in it? Do we throw it away and refuse to acknowledge it? Or do we brace ourselves and read it anyway? It's a question with no easy answer. It is up to the reader to decide. Classics can teach us to look outside a novel to the social and historical context in which they were written. They can show us how far (or not) our own society has come.
Classics can often be overlooked, or believed to be boring and outdated. But they are the story of humanity in all its triumphs and failures. They are the best of times, they are the worst of times (A Tale of Two Cities). And they are that rare thing - something that is actually as good as people say it is.

​By Rebekah Wade