Showing results by narrator "Mark Alan" in All Categories

Ambition and jealousy - all set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards?

Northampton. The center of England. Twelve extraordinary characters transport you through 6,000 years of astonishing history. As Alan Moore’s place-writing masterpiece reaches its 25th anniversary, New Perspectives brings this expansive work to life through twelve immersive audio journeys.

As the eldest daughter of the Earl of Cottesmore, Lady Mercedes Stanhope didn't expect to be still without a husband at the start of her third season. And neither did she expect to be the target of a kidnapping attempt on her journey home from Scotland. But most of all, she didn't expect to experience such an emotional connection to the man who came to her rescue…

In the eyes of her family, Chastity Shackleford was impulsive, flighty, overly emotional and inclined to sentimental overtures. All in all, a disaster waiting to happen should she accept the Duke of Blackmore's offer of a Season in London. But what else was she to do since her twin sister and best friend had abandoned her for the wilds of Cornwall? Naturally she might have hoped that disaster had waited a little longer before striking, but at least she faced the possibility of marriage with someone who had all his own teeth.

Letters of Note, the book based on the beloved website of the same name, became an instant classic on publication in 2013, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. This new edition sees the collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring, and unusual letters updated with 14 riveting new missives and a new introduction from curator Shaun Usher.

Prudence Shackleford had not expected to be a spinster at three and twenty, but unfortunately, as she'd quickly discovered, very few men were prepared to tolerate either her ghoulish sense of humour, or her macabre taste in literature. And those were the ones she'd got as far as holding a conversation with. When invited to London by the Duke and Duchess of Blackmore to witness the Coronation of King George IV, she was equal parts horrified and intrigued. Especially after a chance meeting with a Bow Street Runner on the trail of conspirators it was feared were planning to murder the King.

One of them is a bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist. The other is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Together, they form the League of Comic Justice, battling evildoers in the name of . . . Okay, we made that line up. What they do form is a writing team of pure comic...

High-tech robots, equipped with state-of-the-art security devices, have been recruited as the new mechanical "night watchmen" for Park Plaza Mall. But when a jolting bolt of lightning short-circuits the main computer control, the robots turn into "killbots," on the loose after unsuspecting shoppers!

Ours is an urban age. From Uruk and Eridu in ancient Mesopotamia to London and New York City in the 21st century, cities have long supported and sustained what makes us human. But can they survive the next 100 years? If so, they’re going to have to remain livable. In this 10-lecture series, focusing on that livability is at the heart of livable cities, Professor Mark Alan Hughes discusses why we seek out cities and how they create the conditions that allow us to meet our fundamental needs as individuals and as a human community.

Once deemed too controversial to release, DEADGIRL stunned festival audiences, outraged religious groups, and became an instant cult sensation. A film that seared itself into the minds of the depraved and the discerning alike, it remains one of the most transgressive and boundary-pushing nightmares of its era.

Socrates, perhaps the most famous philosopher of the ancient world, left no writings. The method of philosophical investigation for which he is celebrated has come down to us in the form of dialogues, composed by his student, Plato. The four dialogues in this collection are known by the names of the chief characters in each: Lysis, Charmides, Laches, and Euthyphro. As they fall into a more or less natural group due to the fact that each one deals with a single ethical abstract—friendship, temperance, courage, and piety, respectively—they have been renamed based on their subjects.

Jason Slater is a very average twenty-first-century English teacher from Cheadle Hulme, but somehow wakes up after a few drinks in nineteenth-century Macclesfield. Apparently, he's now Tarquin, third son of Lord Belport, with a faithful valet, a suspicious brother, a spurned ex-girlfriend (who's now going out with his brother)—and no obvious way he'll ever get back home again. From toasted sandwich makers and the perfect beer, to root canals and royal visits, can Jason—Tarquin, that is—change the course of history and make 1834 his playground?

This classic farce was first performed in 1892. Since the record-breaking initial run in London, it has been revived many times around the world in a variety of languages, and has also been adapted for a number of presentations on film. The play incorporates many of the features which have become standard in romantic comedies: a cross dressing central character, identity confusion, young lovers kept apart by parental influence and older lovers unexpectedly reunited.

William Shakespeare, long hailed as the history's greatest dramatic writer, has been lauded for his mastery of poetic expression, his insight into the human condition and his deep exploration into the psyche and motivations of his characters. These skills are perhaps best encapsulated in the monologues he gives his various protagonists, villains, and bit players.

Ten full-cast dramas featuring some of the best known names in British comedy. In these ten witty, dark and disturbing episodes some of Britain’s best comedians come together to perform simultaneously hilarious and unsettling stories that will have you gripped. Sticky situations on ski slopes...

Author of the award-winning novel Finn, Jon Clinch has drawn favorable comparisons to William Faulkner. With Kings of the Earth, he takes listeners to an upstate New York farm where the three Procter brothers live in stasis. When one dies in his sleep, the other two are soon suspected of murder.

The collection contains eight of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies. Each exhibits the vigour, humour, and optimism of the young master before he turned to the gloom and bitterness of the great tragedies.

King Claudius, when a young man, wrote a five-act tragedy which was damned, and all reference to it forbidden under penalty of death. The King has a son - Hamlet - whose tendency to soliloquize has so alarmed his mother, Queen Gertrude, that she has sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to devise some Court revels for his entertainment. Rosencrantz is a former lover of Ophelia, to whom Hamlet is betrothed, and they lay their heads together to devise a plan by which Hamlet may be put out of the way. Some Court theatricals are in preparation.

One of the BBC's most acclaimed programmes, Great Lives has been a regular Radio 4 fixture for 20 years, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. Every week, a famous name is invited into the studio to nominate a figure from the past who has inspired them, and discuss their subject with the presenter and a guest expert.

Set against the backdrop of three major American Civil War battles at Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg, the same five narrators return to tell the stories of what happened in their communities of conscience. Members of Mennonite, Amish, and German Baptist churches choose their loyalties when their traditional belief of not participating in warfare collides with the demands of Union and Confederate forces.