Showing results by narrator "Stephen Thorne" in All Categories

The story of Britain from the earliest settlements in 3000BC to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. To look back at the past is to understand the present. In this vivid account of over 4,000 years of British history, Simon Schama takes us on an epic journey which encompasses the very beginnings of the nation's identity, when the first settlers landed on Orkney. From the successes and failures of the monarchy to the daily life of a Roman soldier stationed on Hadrian's Wall, Schama gives a vivid, fascinating account of the many different stories and struggles that lie behind the growth of our island nation.

In The English and their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the first adventure in C. S. Lewis' classic Narnia series. Polly Plummer and her next-door neighbour, Digory, are exploring one wet afternoon when the accidental discovery of some magic rings sends them off on the most exciting and dangerous journey of...

Brought to you by Penguin. Winston Churchill towers over every other figure in 20th-century British history. By the time of his death at the age of 90 in 1965, many thought him to be the greatest man in the world. There have been over a thousand previous biographies of Churchill. Andrew Roberts...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the second adventure in C. S. Lewis' classic Narnia series. When Lucy comes across the old wardrobe standing alone in the spare room, she thinks she has found a good place for hide and seek. But then she tumbles headlong into a magical world of fauns...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the third adventure in C. S. Lewis' classic Narnia series. Life in a small fishing village in the south of Calormen is all that young Shasta knows until, one day, he overhears his father planning to sell him into slavery to a stranger and discovers that...

The second volume featuring eight classic stories about Elmer, our favourite colourful patchwork elephant! A modern classic, Elmer the colourful patchwork elephant has been a nursery favourite since his creation in 1989 and has sold over four million copies around the world. Elmer is not your normal grey elephant - his colourful exuberance cannot be contained for long! With his trademark cheeky humour, Elmer shows us that it's OK to be different.

Winter in Denton is a busy time for DI Jack Frost, whose unsolved crime figures are mounting. A serial killer is murdering local prostitutes; armed robbery; a ram raid at a jewellers and a buried skeleton is uncovered. But Frost's main concern is for the safety of a missing schoolgirl. The dead body of another little girl from the same school is found... Frost's prime suspect, strongly protesting his innocence, hangs himself in his cell, leaving a note blaming Frost for driving him to suicide.

The British wars began on the morning of 23 July 1637, heralding 200 years of battles. Most were driven by religious or political conviction, as Republicans and Royalists, Catholics and Protestants, Tories and Whigs, and colonialists and natives vied for supremacy. Of the battles not fought on home territory, many took place across Europe, America, India, and also at sea. Schama's examination of this turbulent period reveals how the British people eventually united in imperial enterprise, forming 'Britannia Incorporated'.

A collection of the BBC’s dramatisations of Ngaio Marsh’s most famous sleuth: Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Includes 'A Man Lay Dead', 'A Surfeit of Lampreys', 'Opening Night' and 'When in Rome'.

November 5th, 1982. It's been one of the worst days of Detective Sergeant Jack Frost's life. He has buried his wife Mary, and must now endure the wake, attended by all of Denton's finest. All, that is, apart from DC Sue Clark, who spends the night chasing a bogus tip-off, before being summoned to the discovery of a human foot. And the night gets worse. Local entrepreneur Harry Baskin is shot inside his club, an off-licence is set on fire and a famous painting goes missing. And Superintendant Mullett's attempts to join the Freemasons are being rudely thwarted.

The third volume featuring classic stories about Elmer, our favourite colourful patchwork elephant! A modern classic, Elmer the colourful patchwork elephant has been a nursery favourite since his creation in 1989 and has sold over four million copies around the world. Elmer is not your normal grey elephant - his colourful exuberance cannot be contained for long! With his trademark cheeky humour, Elmer shows us that it's OK to be different.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the sixth adventure in C. S. Lewis' classic Narnia series. King Caspian has grown old and sad in the ten years since the disappearance of his only son. With time running out, Jill and Eustace embark on a perilous quest to find the Prince and bring back...

Gervase Bonel, with his wife and servants, is a guest of Shrewsbury Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul when he is suddenly taken ill. Luckily, the Abbey boasts the services of clever and kindly Brother Cadfael, a skilled herbalist. Cadfael hurries to the man's bedside, only to be confronted by two very different surprises. In Master Bonel's wife, the good monk recognises Richildis, whom he loved many years ago before he took his vows. And Master Bonel has been fatally poisoned by a dose of deadly monk's-hood oil from Cadfael's herbarium.

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the fifth adventure in C. S. Lewis' classic Narnia series. In the enchanted land of Narnia, Edmund, Lucy and their cousin Eustace join King Caspian on a sworn mission to find his friends, the seven lost lords of Narnia. So begins a perilous new quest that...

The good guys in a new African nation were missing a treasury full of diamonds. The nation's corrupt leader had stashed the rocks somewhere in New York City. Now the good guys needed a specialist to get their diamonds back. So they came to the best in the business: Parker. Only the three mysterious tough guys came to Parker, too. They figured three hands filled with .38s could convince him to pass up this international gem game. But leaning on Parker was like pressuring a box of TNT with a short fuse.

This is a story of the most well documented, most commented on love affair of our times. Yet the personalities behind the facade remain elusive and the nature of their relationship is an enigma. This is the first major biography of Charles and Camilla, two people who have battled against the curious lot that fate has thrown their way. Gyles Brandreth returns to the same ground as his last book, the bestselling "Philip and Elizabeth"; "Portrait of a Marriage".

Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe. After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended.

In the summer of 1138, war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud takes brother Cadfael from the quiet world of his garden to the bloody battlefield. Not far from the safety of the Abbey walls, Shrewsbury Castle falls, leaving its ninety-four defenders loyal to the empress to hang as traitors. With a heavy heart, Brother Cadfael agrees to bury the dead, only to make a grisly discovery: 95 bodies lie in a row, and the extra corpse tells Cadfael that the killer is both clever and ruthless. But one death among so many seems unimportant to all but the good Benedictine.

Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome brings together all of Lovecraft's harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, just the way they were when first released.