Showing results by narrator "Toby Stephens" in All Categories

Anna Karenina enjoys a privileged and aristrocratic lifestyle as the wife of influential government official Alexy Karenin. Yet their ten-year marriage is devoid of tenderness, and when Anna falls in love with the handsome Count Vronsky they embark upon a deep and passionate affair. Reflecting the social conditions of the era in which it was written, Tolstoy's masterpiece sets a doomed love story against a harsh and unforgiving backdrop.

Defeated Cossacks taunt the pompous sultan of the Ottoman Empire. A black corporal beseeches Abraham Lincoln to ensure that his regiment receives proper payment for performing their duties. Mohandas Gandhi urges Adolf Hitler to turn back the tide of war. A suicide bomber in Iraq explains his simple motivation to his family. This poignant collection offers a nuanced and moving look at the act of armed conflict. Each of these 30 remarkable letters sheds light on what it means for us to take up arms against one another and record a piece of that terrible deed.

In this exquisite literary gem, Georgi Gospodinov, winner of the International Booker Prize, invites the listener on a winding journey through his own memories. He shows us a childhood under Communism, a particularly Bulgarian variety of melancholy, the freedom and thrills found in reading and writing, and the coming of age of one extraordinary writer. Ultimately, this profound, playful and deeply moving autobiographical text offers resounding proof of the power and importance of storytelling.

Verdi writes to his publisher about a man who hated Aida so much that he wants his money back. Keith Richards tells his aunt about bumping into a former schoolmate named Mick Jagger, who also loves Chuck Berry. Yo-Yo Ma wonders whether Leonard Bernstein remembers introducing him onstage as a young boy. A Harvard psychiatrist begs CVS to change their on-hold music. Riffing on their passions and surroundings, the artists and entertainers in this volume candidly reveal the sources of their inspiration, what music means to them, why they create it, and so much more.

Best known today for his comic masterpiece, Vanity Fair, W. M. Thackeray was regarded in his time as the only rival to his contemporary, Charles Dickens. This collection includes a selection of his finest satirical fiction, as well as two fascinating programmes exploring his life and writings.

Shaun Usher brings together fascinating correspondence about the universe beyond our planet, containing hopeful thoughts about the future of space travel, awestruck messages penned about the world beyond our own, and celebrations of the human ingenuity that has facilitated our understanding of the cosmos.

Marcia Warren and Stella Gonet star in J. B. Priestley’s classic family drama about the nature of time. Time and the Conways follows the fortunes of one family over a period of years and offers a moving perspective on the abstract nature of the past, presentand future. It is 1919, the War is over and the Conway family are celebrating their daughter Kay’s 21st birthday. But her sudden premonition of their lives in 1937 casts a shadow over their dreams and expectations.

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In Letters of Note: Fathers, Shaun Usher collects letters celebrating weird and wonderful dads.

New York City goes by many names - Gotham, Empire City, the City That Never Sleeps - and once served as the capital of America. It came together as we know it in 1898 and has become one of the world's most powerful, most important megacities, shaping art, culture, finance, and media across the globe. This iconic collection of 30 letters smartly explores the history of life in the five boroughs. You'll need more than a New York minute to enjoy it all. 

Unlike his friends in the Savage Kings MC, Abel Giovanni has no plans to get hitched. He enjoys his bachelor lifestyle, even if the string of one-night stands doesn’t fill the void inside of him. What he wants he knows he can’t have, so why waste time thinking about it, right? Cory Collins isn’t trustworthy. He’s the reason an innocent man spent two years in prison. And if Cory doesn’t learn how to stop running his mouth soon, Abel’s going to send him back to college black and blue - before he has a chance to try and make amends for the past.

Florence Nightingale sends care instructions to the woman who has just adopted her angora tomcat, Mr. White. T. S. Eliot issues a rhyming birthday party invitation to all Jellicle cats for his four-year-old godson. Jack Kerouac's mother grieves at the death of the family cat. Jack Lemmon winkingly suggests to Walter Matthau that they go in on a cat ranch in Mexico. This utterly charming collection offers a warm and friendly look at the place that cats occupy in our hearts and lives.

Broadcast live from the Club Akimbo, Bletchley, this is Britain's first public access cable radio show, presented by a group of Buckinghamshire district councillors who really should know better. Chairman of the Ways and Means committee Mr Dutton is our host as he introduces us to the items on the agenda, which include sparkling sketches, surreal escapades and musical interludes from Chilean charmer Enrico Valdez and his Orchestra with Mickey Binelli.

It used to be the most WONDERFUL time of the year, but for years Christmas has been taken over by Winterzone. All the things that made Christmas special are gone. Instead, Christmas is run by robots, while 3D holograms of Santa Claus called Santavatars check if you’ve been naughty or nice—and on Christmas Eve, all of the presents are delivered by ZoneDrones instead of Santa’s reindeer! But when they stumble on a curious clue, eleven-year-old Etta and her friend Monty find themselves thrown into a fight to bring back Christmas.

In this latest exciting adventure, Jet Morgan and his crew receive a distress call from an abandoned space freighter. But when they board the ship, Jet and Doc discover a digitised personality locked inside the ship's computer - one with a deadly intent. The crew must find a way to defeat the vastly superior Host: for if they fail, they will not only all perish, but mankind will become a dispensable stepping stone to a new chapter in evolution...

Fresh from Afghanistan, James Bond has been recruited to a new agency. It operates independent of Five, Six and the MoD, with its very existence deniable. Its aim: to protect the Realm, by any means necessary. The Night Action alert calls Bond from dinner with a beautiful woman. GCHQ has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week. And 007 has been given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to fulfil his mission.

In Letters of Note: Dogs, Shaun Usher brings together a delightful collection of correspondence about our canine friends, featuring affectionate accounts of pups' playful misdemeanors, heartfelt tributes to loyal fidos, and shared tales of remarkable hounds.

A fascinating new volume of messages about fatherhood, from the author of the best-selling Letters of Note collections. In Letters of Note: Fathers, Shaun Usher collects together remarkable correspondence by and about fathers, including proud parental words of love, advice from experienced dads to new ones, as well as letters from both frustrated and adoring offspring.

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.

Where has scientist George Cameron disappeared to? What deadly formula has he discovered? Why is his daughter Lucy in such terrible danger? And why was the meek chemist Tibbs so ruthlessly killed? The fate of the country lies in the hands of one man - Dick Barton - Special Agent! An abridged reading of a classic Dick Barton adventure, written by Mike Dorrell and read by Toby Stephens.