Showing results by narrator "Helen Smith" in All Categories

Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench. Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner.

Room 101 is the anti-Desert Island Discs. Instead of picking the tracks, books and luxuries they love, guests are invited to banish their least favourite things to Orwell's eponymous chamber of horrors. Twenty-seven episodes of the show were broadcast on Radio 5 between 1992 and 1994, and it went on to run for 18 hit series on BBC TV before relaunching on Radio 4 in 2023. This specially curated collection contains 16 of the very best editions of the original radio series.

Kate Kerrigan has seen the blood-soaked face of war. But nothing has prepared her for the assault on her land that begins with an eviction order hammered onto the door of her family's cabin. Beautiful, cold-blooded Savannah Saint James has her sights set on the Kerrigan property - and 12 of the deadliest hired guns in Texas are ready to back her play. Kate has her sons by her side, a ragtag group of ranchers who don't like outsiders messing with their cattle, and a fighting spirit passed down from her Irish ancestors.

"How We Think" by John Dewey was published in 1910. From the preface: "Our schools are troubled with a multiplication of studies, each in turn having its own multiplication of materials and principles. Our teachers find their tasks made heavier in that they have come to deal with pupils individually and not merely in mass. Some clew of unity, some principle that makes for simplification, must be found. This book represents the conviction that the needed steadying and centralizing factor is found in adopting as the end of endeavor that attitude of mind, that habit of thought, which we call scientific.

"His Grace of Osmonde" (1897) is a historical satire by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "Upon the village of Camylott there had rested since the earliest peep of dawn a hush of affectionate and anxious expectancy, the very plough-boys going about their labours without boisterous laughter, the children playing quietly, and the good wives bustling less and modulating the sharpness of their voices, the most motherly among them in truth finding themselves falling into whispering as they gossiped of the great subject of the hour.

"Thoughts are Things" (1889) is a philosophical work by Prentice Mulford. Content: The Material Mind Vs The Spiritual Mind, Who Are Our Relations? Thought Currents, One Way To Cultivate Courage, Look Forward! God In The Trees; Or, The Infinite Mind In Nature, Some Laws Of Health And Beauty, Museum And Menagerie Horrors, The God In Yourself, The Healing And Renewing Force Of Spring, Immortality In The Flesh, The Attraction Of Aspiration, The Accession Of New Thought.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies with Sidney Noir. This collection comprises of all new stories set in Sidney, Australia, by 14 authors of crime fiction....

A founding father of American literature, James Fenimore Cooper was one of America's first professional novelists, and a pioneer of both the Western and the historical romance. Included here are his 1826 masterpiece The Last of the Mohicans and his 1821 classic The Spy, widely considered the world's first espionage novel.

Poet Ian McMillan is our host in this gleeful game of literary tomfoolery, outrageous parody and biting wit. Joining him for some lighthearted competitive wordplay are a quartet of writers and comedians, all ready and eager to run riot through the halls of great literature.

Perfect for Janeites everywhere, this enticing collection brings together for the first time six special recordings that offer a glimpse behind the scenes at the life of the celebrated author. Taking us on a journey from her earliest teenage writings, to her love affair aged 20, to the scandalous arrest of her aunt which shook her family, these fascinating programmes offer a closer look at Jane Austen and those around her, as seen through her letters, writings and final home.

"Teddy Bears" (1907) is a charming story about the adventures of the titular toys by Adah Louise Sutton. Excerpt from the book: "Some of them were dressed in delightful worsted sweaters and peaked toboggan caps, each having a long tassel that hung over at the side. And there were also the cutest woolen leggings to match. Others were arrayed in little cotton overalls and a few in the most fascinating pajamas. Most of them, however, wore only their own furry coats. And very fine indeed they looked after all the brushing and grooming.

Robin (1921) is a historical novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "In the years when Victorian standards and ideals began to dance an increasingly rapid jig, there lived in Mayfair, in a slice of a house, Robert Gareth-Lawless and his lovely young wife. So light and airy was she to earthly vision and so diaphanous the texture of her mentality that she was known as 'Feather.'

Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench. Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner. All that changes abruptly, however, when the sorceress Sharee re-enters his life with the forces of the warlike Lord Bellicose hard on her heels. They want something they're convinced she has stolen. 

"The Dawn of a To-morrow" (1906) is an existential short story by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt: "There are always two ways of looking at a London fog. When it is thick and yellow in the streets and stings a man's throat and lungs as he breathes it, an awakening in the early morning is either an unearthly and grewsome, or a mysteriously enclosing, secluding, and comfortable thing.

"In the Closed Room" (1904) is a short novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "In the fierce airless heat of the small square room the child Judith panted as she lay on her bed. Her father and mother slept near her, drowned in the heavy slumber of workers after their day’s labour. Some people in the next flat were quarrelling, irritated probably by the appalling heat and their miserable helplessness against it. All the hot emanations of the sun-baked city streets seemed to combine with their clamour and unrest, and rise to the flat in which the child lay gazing at the darkness.

"A Lady of Quality" (1897) is a historical novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "On a wintry morning at the close of 1690, the sun shining faint and red through a light fog, there was a great noise of baying dogs, loud voices, and trampling of horses in the courtyard at Wildairs Hall; Sir Jeoffry being about to go forth a-hunting, and being a man with a choleric temper and big, loud voice, and given to oaths and noise even when in good-humour, his riding forth with his friends at any time was attended with boisterous commotion.

The 12 essays in Voices of Change, by 15 inspiring youth leading the climate change movement in Canada, explore the most challenging issues around climate change, from sustainability to activism. The contributors, from all across the nation, describe their own work developing successful initiatives that have positively brought about environmental change.

This classic Victorian thriller was first produced in 1935. Jack Manningham is slowly, deliberately driving his wife, Bella, insane. He has almost succeeded when help arrives in the form of a former detective, Rough, who believes Manningham to be a thief and murderer. Aided by Bella, Rough proves Manningham's true identity, and finally Bella achieves a few moments of sweet revenge for the suffering inflicted on her.

"Airplane Boys in the Black Woods" (1930) is an adventure novel for children by E. J. Craine. Excerpt from the book: "Holy Clover, that fellow would make his fortune in a dairy, all right," exclaimed Bob Caldwell. "His fortune, how do you make that out?" Jim Austin demanded. "I'll bite, let’s have the answer." "He'd do the biting - that one tooth ought to be great to make holes in Swiss cheese!" "If I didn’t need both hands you would get a wallop that would leave you only one tooth, then you could start competition," Austin answered.

Fight for the Remote is a new seven-part audio comedy series from Fantom Films. Fighting for the remote are Jon and Alice, a 20-something couple living together in London. Alice enjoys socialising; Jon hates meeting people. While Alice is climbing her career ladder, Jon is quite content on the bottom rung of his. They are constantly caught in the middle ground between settling for what they have and wanting more and wondering whether what they have together is worth fighting for.