Showing results by narrator "Simon Callow" in All Categories

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, a select group of his family and most ardent admirers from the worlds of literature and entertainment, including Joanna Lumley and Simon Callow, gathered in Highgate Cemetery, burial place of many of the Dickens family, to hear readings from his work introduced by his great-great-grandson Mark Dickens and to discuss his life.

In this moving collection, Shaun Usher gathers together some of the most powerful letters about love ever written. Whether inspired by love’s first blush or the recriminations at its ending, the regrets of unrequited feelings and the joys of passions known, Letters of Note: Love is essential listening for anyone with a heart.

Blending the sophisticated satire of Jonathan Swift with the charming exuberance of a Pixar film, Pyg tells the story of Toby, a truly exceptional pig who lived in late 18th-century England. After winning the blue ribbon at the Salford Livestock Fair and escaping the butcher's knife, Toby tours the country, wowing circus audiences with his abilities to count, spell, and even read the minds of ladies (but only with their permission, of course). He goes on to study at Oxford and Edinburgh - encountering such luminaries as Samuel Johnson, Robert Burns, and William Blake - before finally writing his own life story.

In Letters of Note: War, Shaun Usher brings together some of the most remarkable letters that encapsulate the human experience of war, from unimaginable feats of courage and compassion, to unthinkable episodes of violence and horror. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Danny Huston, Toby Jones, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jude Law, Natascha McElhone, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson and Mark Strong.

Insightful, incisive and enlightening, the first volume of Simon Callow's comprehensive biography of Orson Welles. Now in abridged audio, Callow's vastly entertaining chronicle of Welles's first 26 years seems even finer than it did in 1995. The author's ability to skewer his subject's evasions and lies while retaining critical affection for him is perhaps explained by the fact that Callow, an actor himself, understands the need to mythologise. Welles's innovative theatrical work in the 1930s has never been better described or analysed.

The first volume in the best-selling Letters of Note series was a collection of hundreds of the world's most entertaining, inspiring, and unusual letters, based on the seismically popular website of the same name. In this volume, Shaun Usher turns to the theme of war. Letters of Note: War brings together some of the most remarkable letters that encapsulate human experience of war, from unimaginable feats of courage and compassion, to unthinkable episodes of violence and horror. Includes letters by Kurt Vonnegut, Alexander Hamilton, Martha Gellhorn, and many more.

In this latest adventure, on a winter's day, Claude goes from throwing snowballs and making snowmen to causing an all-out avalanche!

The kingdom of Albion is under threat from The Evil One. The elves have trusted the kingdom with a mystic device (the number seven) and have entrusted a wizard by the name of Radox The Green to find a hero to save the land, in the shape of Agar Son of Athar. The series consists of four half-hour episodes or "Chronicles", originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from November 25 to December 16, 1980 and was written by Andrew Marshall (2 Point 4 Children) and John Lloyd (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & QI).

Simon Callow plunges headlong into Wagner's world to discover what it was like to be Wagner and to be around one of music's most influential figures. During a wildly unpredictable 69-year life, Richard Wagner became the hero of his era and the official protagonist of a new unified Germany: his music was its music. The architect of the vast four-day, 15-hour epic, he unleashed through his thousands and thousands of words gods and dwarves, dragons and songbirds, maidens and female warriors on horseback.

A short life of Dickens which celebrates the impact of the theatre on his life and work. Two hundred years after his death, Dickens’s work is more popular than ever, in a variety of media, most of them undreamed of during his lifetime. Over the last few decades of intensive research, Dickens the man has become much better known to us and the sheer originality of his personality blazes forth as never before.

Claude is no ordinary dog - he leads an extraordinary life! When Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes set off for work, Claude decides what adventure he wants to have that day. Today he and Sir Bobblysock go to the city for the very first time. They have tea in a cafe, go shopping and visit a museum. It is all very normal until...Claude accidentally foils a robbery and becomes the local hero!

Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective is lured to Stratford-upon-Avon following an explosion by a band of determined suffragettes. Faced with the ingenious mind of Mr Rigby Lacksome, Max and his trusty servant Parkinson must solve the riddle of the missing body of William Shakespeare.

A brand-new collection from the internationally best-selling author of Letters of Note.

The animals in the farmyard decide that working for humans is doing them no favours ,so under the leadership of Napoleon, the only Berkshire Boar on the farm, and the other pigs, they drive out the farmer and his cohorts and set about structuring their own society. Based on a list of supposedly animal-friendly rules such as “four legs good, two legs bad” the animals work together to harvest their own food and run their own farm. However, little by little, the rules begin to mysteriously change.

Condemned as immoral when it was first published in 1890, Oscar Wilde's tale of the beautiful young man who "sold himself to the devil for a pretty face" follows the fortunes of Dorian Gray when his prayer for eternal youth as he contemplates his newly finished portrait is answered.

Victory was the last of Conrad's novels to be set in the Malay Archipelago. It tells the story of Axel Heyst, who has retreated from the world of commerce to live alone on the island of Samburan. But his solitary existence ends when he rescues an English girl and brings her back to the island. She recalls him to love and to life, until the world breaks in on them once more with tragic consequences.

In Letters of Note: Music, Shaun Usher brings together a riveting collection of letters by and about some of the musicians and music that enrich our lives. Wonderfully wide-ranging and illuminating, it will delight music lovers of all stripes. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise Brealey, Simon Callow, Nick Cave, Crystal Clarke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adrian Edmondson, Stephen Fry, Danny Huston, Toby Jones, Jude Law, Stephen Mangan, Miriam Margolyes, Clarke Peters, Juliet Stevenson and Mark Strong.

In Letters of Note: Sex, Shaun Usher collects together some of the most noteworthy missives ever written on the subject, from euphemism-laden, flirtatious exchanges and desire-driven expressions of passion to sincere and thoughtful meditations on the meaning of sex. Includes letters by John Cheever, Sigmund Freud, Dorothy Day, James Joyce, Margaret Mead, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Mae West and many others.

The first volume in the best-selling Letters of Note series was a collection of hundreds of the world's most entertaining, inspiring, and unusual letters, based on the seismically popular website of the same name - an online museum of correspondence visited by over 70 million people.

A walk in the park leads to a walk on a tightrope when Claude joins a circus, throws custard pies and becomes the star of the show!