Showing results by narrator "Bernard" in All Categories

Paterson Joseph stars as the Marquis de Carabas in this brand-new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Neil Gaiman's spin-off short story, set in the magical world of Neverwhere. Returning us to London Below, this enchanting tale continues the story of one of the most colourful characters from Neverwhere - the cool, charming, resourceful Marquis de Carabas, who trades in favours and always has a plan.

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

"Le premier soir, je me suis donc endormi sur le sable à mille milles de toute terre habitée. J'étais bien plus isolé qu'un naufragé sur un radeau au milieu de l'océan. Alors, vous imaginez ma surprise, au lever du jour, quand une drôle de petite voix m'a réveillé. Elle disait : "S'il vous plaît... dessine-moi un mouton !" J'ai bien regardé. Et j'ai vu ce petit bonhomme tout à fait extraordinaire qui me considérait gravement..."

The ground-breaking show that exploded on to TV screens in the 70's turning a whole host of club comedians into stars overnight. Frank Carson, Charlie Williams, Bernard Manning, Duggie Brown, Ken Goodwin and Stan Boardman amongst others. This re-union in Blackpool brings four of the original artists back on stage and also includes a great documentary with interviews and performances from the other stars.

A vintage BBC suspense thriller from the creator of The Archers and Dick Barton When David Conway attends a birthday party for his beautiful fiancée Pat, he expects a few drinks and a good time, but what he discovers is that his beloved is in fact in terrible danger. Following the clues, and a...

Anthony Trollope is most famous for his portrait of the professional and landed classes of Victorian England, especially in his Palliser and Barsetshire novels. But he was also the author of one of the most fascinating autobiographies of the nineteenth century. Trollope was born in 1815, the product of a formidable mother and a tragically unsuccessful father who was socially ambitious for his sons. He was the victim of vicious bullying at Harrow and Winchester. But he had inherited his mother's determination, and managed later to carve out a successful career in the General Post Office while devoting every spare moment to writing. How he paid his groom to wake him every morning at 5:30 a.m. and disciplined himself to write 250 words every fifteen minutes has become part of literary legend. His efforts resulted in over sixty books, a sizable fortune, and fame, and his autobiography. Trollope looks back on his life with satisfaction. Perhaps as interesting as the facts he reveals and the opinions he records about Dickens and George Eliot, politics and the civil service are the judgments he passes on his own character.

Sophie already has a rabbit and a cat and a dog, but what she'd really love is a pony. Good fortune comes Sophie's way when she's invited to spend her summer holiday in Scotland with Great Aunt Al.

This famous treatise began as a letter to a young French friend who asked Edmund Burke’s opinion on whether France’s new ruling class would succeed in creating a better order. Doubtless the friend expected a favorable reply, but Burke was suspicious of certain tendencies of the Revolution from the start and perceived that the revolutionaries were actually subverting the true "social order". Blending history with principle and graceful imagery with profound practical maxims, this book is one of the most influential political treatises in the history of the world.

Bernard Braden stars in an original 1940 full-cast production of the very first Paul Temple adventure. Between 1938 and 1968, the exploits of amateur detective Paul Temple and his wife, Steve, enthralled generations of BBC radio listeners. Theirs was an exciting world of violence and glamour - car bombs and cocktail parties. In Paul and Steve’s very first adventure, starring Bernard Braden as Paul, with Peggy Hassard as Steve, a spate of jewel robberies in the Midlands has left the police baffled.

Jay Bernard’s powerful debut is a queer exploration of the black British archive, tracing a line between two significant events in recent British history: the New Cross Massacre of 1981 in which 13 young black people were killed in a house fire - and the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. The collection stems from research undertaken about the New Cross Fire during a 2016 residency at the George Padmore Institute.

From the makers of the award winning TV series comes a new story following the women inmates of Wentworth Correctional Facility. Maddie, Scarlett and Anna are three 18-year-olds on the threshold of the rest of their lives. Or they will be, once they finish serving their sentences at  Mockridge Juvenile Centre. With release dates fast approaching, the girls are out of chances - one more altercation with the law and it’s adult prison.

Homer's epic poem, written near the end of eighth century BC in Greece, follows the hero Odysseus as he journeys home after the fall of Troy. Many scholars believe that The Odyssey was originally composed as an oral tradition and was more likely meant to be heard than read, making it a great listen.

It begins with just a few people falling ill. Another flu virus that spreads around the globe. And then the reports begin that people are dying.... When most of the world's population is wiped out, a handful of survivors are left to pick up the pieces. Cities become graveyards. Technology becomes largely obsolete. Mankind must start again.

James Boswell forever changed the genre of biography when he painstakingly transformed a scholarly profusion of detail into a perceptive, lifelike portrait of Dr. Samuel Johnson. James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson reveals a man of outsized appetites and private vulnerabilities and is the source of much of what we know about one of the towering figures of English literature.

England, 1647. Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army has routed the Royalists, and the king, having fled to Scotland, has been ransomed, sent back across the border and imprisoned. It seems the war is over, but there is trouble ahead. Parliament wants to disband the army and install its own militia - an act that looks, to Cromwell's loyal soldiers, like outright betrayal.

From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in French for Intermediate Learners uses listening as the perfect tool to not only delight in learning French, but to accelerate your journey towards fluency.

Locked up in jail, Miguel de Cervantes is attempting to start a novel when he is visited by a priest, who tells him about an old man driven insane by chivalric romances and a vision of glory. Inspired, Cervantes takes up his pen and begins to write. His story begins in La Mancha, where an elderly country gentleman decides to emulate his knightly heroes, Sir Lancelot and El Cid, and embark on a quest to prove his valour. Renaming himself Don Quixote, he puts on his rusty armour and rides out with his loyal squire Sancho Panza.

Villains, gangsters or 'Faces', as they prefer to be called, are the men, gang and family members who have made headlines over the past 50 years for all the wrong reasons. Some are household names: the Krays, the Richardsons, Paul Ferris, Frankie Fraser, Arthur Thompson and Vic Dark. Many you will not recognise, but the mere mention of these people has struck fear into individuals and entire communities. Despite their notoriety, the faces of Britain’s most feared criminals remain largely unknown. That is until now.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

Small but very determined Sophie wants to be a lady farmer when she grows up. Down in the potting shed, she has made a start and keeps flocks of free-range wood lice and herds of snails.