Showing results by narrator "Gyles Brandreth"

This witty and unexpected show brings you toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang and Greek gobbledegook. Find out the meaning of words like giff-gaff, knock-knobbler and buckfitches; the difference between French marbles, French velvet and the French ache; hear the glorious poetry of the English language, as practiced from writers varying from William Shakespeare to Vanilla Ice; and spend time laughing and learning with some of the finest Wordaholics in the business. 

Gyles Brandreth has had a wide, varied and illustrious career as a writer, broadcaster, actor, public speaker and minister of parliament. As the honorary president of The Oscar Wilde Society, the author of the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries and owner of over 100 books on the eminent figure, it is fair to say that he is also a committed Oscar Wilde enthusiast.

London, 1894. 'I am not a detective, chief constable.' 'No, but you are a poet, a freemason and a man of the world. All useful qualifications for the business in hand.' So says Police Chief Macnaghten to Oscar Wilde in a Chelsea drawing room, in the company of Arthur Conan Doyle. The business they are gathered to discuss is none other than the case of Jack the Ripper, the most notorious murderer in England. And thus the three men set out to solve one of the world's most famous mysteries.

Four specially selected episodes of Radio 4's much-loved panel game includes two special celebratory editions. In the first, which celebrates Just A Minute's 45th anniversary, Paul Merton, Ross Noble, Jenny Eclair and Gyles Brandreth are given subjects from the first series in 1967, such as When I Wear A Top Hat, The English Nanny, Knitting A Cable Stitch Jumper, How To Perform A Cornish Floral Dance - and Derek Nimmo!

Pantomime Stories – "Babes in the Wood"; "Cinderella"; "Dick Whittington"; "Jack and the Beanstalk"; "Puss in Boots"; "The Sleeping Beauty". Brothers Griimm Fairy Tales – "Rapunzel"; "Rumplestiltskin"; "The Frog Prince"; "The Three Musicians". Hans Andersen Fairy Tales – "The Nightingale"; "The Emperor's New Clothes"; "The Little Match Girl"; "The Tinder Box"; "The Ugly Duckling"; "Thumbelina".

The aim of this audiobook is entertainment - and surprise - but there will be a fair bit of erudition and incidental education along the way. We discover the oldest words, the newest, the longest, the shortest, the most frequently used, the costliest (yes, words can come with a price attached), the funniest, the most fatal, the most unusual...from the words Shakespeare gave us to the latest in sexting, the best and the worst, the most amusing and amazing words are here.