Showing results by narrator "Michael Jayston" in All Categories

October 1772, Portsmouth. Sixteen-year-old Richard Bolitho waits to join the Gorgon, ordered to sail to the west coast of Africa and to destroy those who challenge the King's Navy. For Bolitho, and for many of the crew, it is a severe and testing initiation into the game of seamanship.

Although the Grand Alliance was now in place, Churchill knew that it would take precious time before it would be able to effectively engage and subdue the enemy. Disaster was upon him almost at once. With the entrance of Japan into the global conflict, our Far East possessions were under immediate threat. Singapore and the Philippines fell. In Africa, Rommel took Tobruk. At sea, the loss of ships mounted. His task seemed ever greater, but his spirit, his resolve, his belief in his people's ability to overcome the terrible evil of Nazism was unshakeable.

The Blitz continued to rain down on the shell and morale of the Nation’s defences. In the cold grey waters of the North Atlantic wolfpacks of enemy U boats hunted down with ruthless efficiency the supply lines that could keep Britain in the war. Through the year the enemy produced many of their grandest victories but Britain was able to stabilise its position in the Middle East although setbacks at the hands of the newly arrived Rommel, the Desert Fox, were encountered in North Africa.

Returning to England after the dramatic capture of Martinique, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho attains an all too brief respite from war and politics. But the shadow of a new conflict already darkens the horizon. The old enemy, France, forges an uneasy alliance with America - threatening the safety of British trade routes. Although ordered immediately to the Indian Ocean, Bolitho’s thoughts are of his own - and the Navy’s - past. Both Nelson and Collingwood died in their country’s service.

In this short and intense period of the war, Churchill’s sense of history is profound. 'If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say this was its finest hour.' In this second volume, Britain stands alone in combat against the mortal threat posed to civilisation, liberal democracy, and human decency. Between May 1940 and January 1941, the world witnessed some of the most spectacular military victories of all time.

A classic thriller from the bestselling master of action and suspense. The atomic submarine Dolphin has impossible orders: to sail beneath the ice floes of the Arctic Ocean, and somehow locate and rescue the men of weather-station Zebra, gutted by fire and drifting with the ice-pack somewhere...

March 1814. Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho returns to England from several months' rigorous patrolling off the North American coast. War with the United States has not yet ended, but news of Napoleon's defeat and abdication has stunned a navy and a nation bled by years of European conflict. Victory has been the impossible dream, and now, for Bolitho, a vision of the future and a personal peace seems attainable. However, an unsympathetic Admiralty dispatches him to Malta.

January 1782, Portsmouth. His Britannic Majesty's frigate Phalarope is ordered to the assistance of the hard-pressed squadrons in the Caribbean. Aboard is her new commander - Richard Bolitho. To all appearances the Phalarope is everything a young captain could wish for. But beneath the surface she is a deeply unhappy ship - her wardroom torn by petty greed and ambition, her deckhands driven to near mutiny by senseless ill treatment.

A magnificent exploration of the new world order from New York Times bestselling author John le Carré, one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. When Tessa Quayle—a young, beautiful woman and Justin’s beloved wife—is gruesomely murder in northern Kenya, Justin sets...

In his debut novel, rock legend Pete Townshend explores the anxiety of modern life and madness in a story that stretches across two generations of a London family, their lovers, collaborators, and friends. A former rock star disappears on the Cumberland moors. When his wife finds him, she...

It is February 1818, and Adam Bolitho longs for marriage and a safe personal harbour. But with so much of Britain's fleet redundant, he knows he is fortunate to be offered HMS Onward, a new 38-gun frigate whose first mission is not war but diplomacy, as consort to the French frigate Nautilus.

An anthology of over 60 classic poems of war and remembrance. The horrors of war have prompted countless soldiers and civilians to compose poetry, whether to denounce needless slaughter, celebrate courage or honour the dead. Beautifully read by Dean Lennox Kelly, Jenny Agutter, Michael Jayston, Rupert Holliday Evans and Samantha Bond, these timeless poems are poignant and powerful.

April 1797, Falmouth Bay. As France continues her bitter struggle for supremacy on land and sea, the Royal Navy receives a crippling blow at home: the Great Mutiny. Returning home after eighteen months' continuous service, Flag Captain Richard Bolitho finds himself at the centre of the crisis. And his new commander, it seems, is a man who will brook no interference...

With the beach landings of June 6th in the greatest amphibious assault ever seen the final phase of the war had begun. Churchill could survey his task with an easier mind. His relationship with Stalin was becoming increasingly more difficult as Stalin’s moves replaced one terror with another. Churchill was anxious to move forces through Italy to relieve the military pressure on Normandy and Stalin yet limit the advance of Soviet forces into Central and Eastern Europe.

An audio dramatisation of July 1914 Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin.

Hugo's vibrant portrait of the characters in late 18th century Paris is a world-famous story, which has also been made into an award-winning musical. Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, tries to turn his life around for the sake of his adopted daughter, Cosette. Set in turbulent times, this reding by Michael Jayston of this classic tale is a bustling and thrilling trip for a listener through the streets and cafes of a Paris finding its feet and losing its head.

A collection of suspense-filled thrillers from master of the genre Stephen Gallagher A listening treat for fans of gripping drama: eight thrillers, plus a bonus story, from ‘the finest British writer of bestselling popular fiction since Le Carré’. Full of suspense and utterly immersive with...

Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert.

Michael Jayston reads this gripping novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure, concluding the Trial of a Time Lord story arc. Snatched out of time and place and brought before the Time Lords of Gallifrey, the Doctor is on trial for his life. While the Doctor asserts that the evidence of the...

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt communicated by letter from 1939 to 1945 on a direct and personal basis. Their letters chart the events of the war as they unfold and also their attempts to influence and overcome the great tyranny of Nazism.