Showing results by narrator "Nigel Anthony" in All Categories

In this second volume in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, Darley, the reflective Englishman, receives from Balthazar, the pathologist, a mass of notes which attempts to explain what really happened between the tempestuous Justine, her husband Nessim, Clea the artist, and Pursewarden the writer.

Scottish author George MacDonald Fraser took the loutish bully from Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown's Schooldays and gave him a new lease of life. Over the course of 12 novels, caddish anti-hero Flashman swashbuckled his way around the British Empire, playing a key role in some of the 19th century’s most significant events.

Set in the fictional South American country of Costaguana, Nostromo explores the volatile politics and crippling greed surrounding the San Tomé silver mine. The story of power, love, revolutions, loyalty and reward is told with richly evocative description and brilliantly realised characters. But Nostromo is more than an adventure story; it is also a profoundly dark moral fable. Its language is as compellingly resonant as the sea itself; the characters absorbing and complex.

A superb collection of dramas guaranteed to thrill and entertain from best-selling author Peter Ackroyd. Set in the heart of London, these star-studded adaptations feature parallel investigations into killings across two centuries, black magic, haunted houses, holy ghosts and a stunning performance by Simon Callow as the magnificent Charles Dickens. Novelist, biographer and critic Peter Ackroyd has cemented his place at the heart of the culture and history of London. This fantastic collection is full of vitality from a world-class author and stellar cast.

A trio of terrifying radio tales starring Roger Delgado, Vincent Price and Honor Blackman. Author, playwright and TV producer Victor Pemberton was probably best known as a script editor and writer for Doctor Who, and as the inventor of the Doctor's trademark sonic screwdriver. But he also created numerous dramas for radio, among them the three cult classics included here.

There is now no doubt that not only is Waiting for Godot the outstanding play of the 20th century, but it is also Samuel Beckett's masterpiece. Yet it is both a popular text to be studied at school and an enigma. The scene is a country road. There is a solitary tree. It is evening. Two tramp-like figures, Vladimir and Estragon, exchange words. Pull off boots. Munch a root vegetable. Two other curious characters enter. And a boy. Time passes. It is all strange yet familiar.

Five BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of John Buchan’s espionage thrillers featuring gentleman spy Richard Hannay. The forerunner to James Bond, Secret Agent Richard Hannay is a thoroughly British action hero, pursuing ruthless villains, foiling deadly plans and risking life and limb for his country. This gripping collection encompasses all five of Hannay’s adventures, adapted for radio with superb casts including Tom Baker, Clive Merrison, Stuart Milligan, Jasmine Hyde and Patrick Malahide.

Acclaimed as 'the most thoroughly European of British crime writers' (Guardian), Nicolas Freeling was well known for his novels featuring Dutch sleuth Van der Valk and French policeman Henri Castang. Included in this collection are six stories showcasing both detectives, as well as a bonus programme exploring Van der Valk and his creator.

This case is proving a difficult one for Chief Inspector Wexford. All he has to go on is his own intuitive suspicions. Was he becoming cynical and untrusting or was this one of the most ingenious crimes he had ever tackled?

The first girl had a bite mark on her neck, but they traced the DNA to her boyfriend. But the tabloids got hold of the story and called the killer 'The Rottweiler' and the name stuck. The latest murder takes place very near Inez Ferry's antique shop in Marylebone. When the Rottweiler’s trinkets start showing up in the shop, suddenly, everyone Inez knows is a suspect, and the killer feels all too close.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Horace Rumpole in this fourth collection of dramatic court cases. 'Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation': Erskine-Brown is working on a sordid ABH and affray case which allegedly occurred in a Soho night club. When he and Rumpole visit the disreputable scene of the crime, they meet Maurice Machin, the editor of the Daily Beacon, whose paper is being sued for libel.

A female vicar named Sarah Hussain is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. Maxine, the gossipy cleaning woman who finds the body, happens to also be in the employ of former Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford and his wife. When called on by his old deputy, Wexford, who has taken to reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as a retirement project, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators. Wexford is intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, but he's also desperate to escape the chatty Maxine.

Written by veteran radio producer Charles Chilton, Journey into Space kept Light Programme listeners enraptured between 1953 and 1958. Almost eight million people tuned in to the interstellar adventures of Jet Morgan and his intrepid crew, making it the last UK radio drama serial to beat television in the ratings. This audio collection contains the complete Series 3 of the groundbreaking trilogy, as well as the special 90-minute sequel The Return from Mars.

Widely regarded as the most engaging historical novels ever written, the 21 books in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series have garnered millions of fans since the publication of the first volume over 50 years ago. Included here are BBC radio adaptations of the first seven thrilling stories.

'Rumpole and the Way Through the Woods': Rumpole makes friends with a dog named Sir Lancelot and finds himself defending a hunt saboteur who claims to be guilty of murder. 'Rumpole for the Prosecution': Rumpole’s personal commandment is ‘Thou Shalt Not Prosecute’ - but he breaks this rule to take on a private prosecution brought by a dead girl’s father. However, an obscure literary reference and a piece of evidence that doesn’t fit bring his defender’s instincts to the fore....

John Fowles won international acclaim for his innovative, allusive novels The Collector, The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman. All were critical and commercial successes, translated into several languages and adapted as feature films. This collection brings together the BBC Radio adaptations of these three modern classics, with stellar casts including Judi Dench, Charles Dance and John Hurt.

Eugene O'Neill’s revolutionary 20th century dramas changed the direction of American theatre, introducing European realism and experimental techniques to the US stage. He wrote more than 50 plays, portraying characters on the margins of society and tackling controversial issues, winning a Nobel Prize, and four Pulitzer Prizes.

With floods threatening both the town of Kingsmarkham and his own home and no end to the rain in sight, Chief Inspector Wexford already has his hands full when he learns that two local teenagers have gone missing along with their sitter, Joanna Troy.

Against all his expectations, Dr Siri Paiboun has rather enjoyed his first five months in office. Now, as hot-season nights close in, Siri is spirited away from Laos' steamy capital on a Matter of National Security. Arriving in Luang Prabang, he's a busy man, examining carbonized corpses, dining with the deposed king, attending a shamans' conference and being rescued by the ghost of an elephant. Not that Siri's complaining … Luang Prabang is in mountains and a good fifteen degrees cooler.

Justine is the first volume in The Alexandria Quartet, four interlinked novels set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within this polyglot setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is Justine, wild and intense, wife to the wealthy business man Nessim, a mari complaisant.