Showing results by narrator "A. Norton" in All Categories

Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce - plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his life.

Welcome to Sabden, home of the mines that once produced fully half of Britain’s treacle – the sticky stuff that goes into golden syrup, ginger beer and parkin cake. But the wells have run dry, the Bubble and Boggart pub is closing, and the villagers find themselves in a very sticky situation…

The Graham Norton Book Club is back. We’re still all about the stories – reading them, writing then, listening to them, talking about them - and in our new series we’re featuring some of the world’s best storytellers including Margaret Atwood, Matt Haig, Walter Mosley, Lisa Taddeo and Val McDermid.

James Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of short stories about the lives of the people of Dublin around the turn of the century. Each story describes a small but significant moment of crisis or revelation in the life of a particular Dubliner, sympathetically but always with stark honesty. Many of the characters are desperate to escape the confines of their humdrum lives, though those that have the opportunity to do so seem unable to take it.

David Starkey's ‘Monarchy’ charts the rise of the British monarchy from the War of the Roses, the English Civil War and the Georgians, right up until the present day monarchs of the 20th Century. With both authority and verve, David Starkey unmasks the personalities and achievements, the...

Flann O'Brien's most popular and surrealistic novel concerns an imaginary, hellish village police force and a local murder. Weird, satirical, and very funny, its popularity has suddenly increased with the mention of the novel in the TV series Lost.

Welcome to the fourth series of The Graham Norton Book Club where we’re all about the stories – reading them, listening to them, talking about them. We’ve got some of the biggest names in books including Oscar-nominated Room and The Wonder author Emma Donoghue, Oprah-picked, youngest ever Booker-nominated, Leila Mottley, best-selling thriller writer, David Baldacci, Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, national treasure Alan Bennett and more.

An acclaimed nutrition educator reveals how the foods you’re eating to get healthy might be making you sick. “Sally Norton’s well-researched book makes a truly important contribution to the literature in revealing just how much oxalates can damage the human body.”—Nina Teicholz...

A devastating attack. A family separated. A desperate struggle to survive. Jackson Block is trapped far from his family and those he loves when a rogue state unleashes a devastating attack on the United States. To reunite with his loved ones he must fight through streets that have turned into a war zone as survivors and government agents alike threaten not only his existence, but that of the entire nation. Zero Hour is a near-future, what-if tale of the apocalypse told through a frighteningly realistic lens.

In Calmer, Easier, Happier Boys, parenting expert Noel Janis-Norton explains simple strategies for the unique challenges of raising motivated, cooperative and confident boys. Using the foolproof techniques Noel has developed over many years of working with families, parents can get back in charge. Living with boys can become calmer, easier and happier.

These four works show Samuel Beckett at his most penetrating. Both Krapp's Last Tape (1958) and Not I (1972) are among the most striking pieces written for the theatre in the 20th century. An old man sits at a table, playing back old tapes made when he was younger, mixed glimpses of past feelings. In Not I, we have just a mouth expressing memories and torment in a torrent of words.

‘A masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected’ Professor John Sutherland, Chair of Judges, Man Booker Prize 2005 The Sea is John Banville's Man Booker prize-winning exploration of memory, childhood and loss. When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once...

Finnegans Wake, the greatest avant-garde novel of all time, was first published 70 years ago - and people are still trying to work out what it is about. There is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker - aka HCE (Here Comes Everyone) - and Anna Livia Plurabelle, but also Finnegan the hod carrier (or was he a giant?), whose wake is the subject of the book. This is a masterly reading of the abridged version, with copious notes aiding comprehension.

An unparalleled collection of Full-Cast BBC Drama adaptations of Sean O’Casey’s powerful, poignant works One of Ireland’s foremost playwrights, Sean O’Casey is renowned for his groundbreaking plays depicting the lives of poor, working-class Dubliners struggling with social and political...

These are the stories of the female kings: women who risked everything, sometimes unwillingly, to find their place in a man's world. From the lush oases of Ancient Egypt to the cherry blossomed lands of Japan, the machinations of the Tudor court to the far reaches of Pacific Island kingdoms, Women Who Ruled the World is an expansive and comprehensive history of female royal power.

Think of the way you keep up quirky family traditions. How listening to a certain song before speaking in public can calm you down. Or why it feels so strange to sleep on the opposite side of the bed. These are rituals: practices that are imbued with symbolic meaning. And they have the power to turn black-and-white moments into technicolour. Harvard professor and world-leading rituals expert Michael Norton uses his cutting-edge research to show the impact that these everyday actions have on our lives -- and how transforming habits into rituals can give us purpose and pleasure.

All 30 soundtrack episodes of the BBC TV version of Just a Minute Just a Minute is a radio perennial. Loved by listeners for almost 60 years, it’s the BBC’s longest-running and most popular panel game, having clocked up over 1000 episodes on Radio 4. And now, you can enjoy 30 more, with...

A tender love story, a serpentine villainess, a glittering setting in London society, and a showering of Wildean witticism are only a few of the reasons why this play has enjoyed hugely successful revivals in London, in New York, and on the silver screen. This 1895 drama is eerily prescient, as it examines the plight of a promising politician, desperate to hide a secret in his past. With empathy and wit, Oscar Wilde explores the pitfalls of holding public figures to higher standards than the rest of us.

The inevitable is understood by each and every one of us who faces the final calling. So too are the effects on those left behind. The memories are there but the empty space, the void can never be refilled. It remains a dark, unreliable pit of loneliness. The sadness and often depression, the lack of will to continue may swamp us all. Unquenchable, undeniable. But loss can, after mourning, give the opportunity to reappraise the lost and how we can each move forward. In the literary world an accessible balance can be given.

William Butler Yeats remains one of the most popular poets of the 20th century.

"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," "Down by the Salley Gardens," "The Secret Rose": these are just a few of the poems that made William Butler Yeats an international figure. Born in Dublin in 1865, Yeats drew strength from the Irish tradition, as can be seen in this special audiobook, which presents the most important poems in the context of his life and ambitions.