Showing results by narrator "Simon Callow" in All Categories

"It is the history of a revolution that went wrong - and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine". So wrote George Orwell in the original blurb for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. His simple and tragic fable, describes...

Exclusively from Audible. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' So begins Charles Dickens' most famous historical drama: a gripping tale of war, social injustice and the choice between darkness and light. After being unjustly imprisoned for 18 years, French doctor Manette is released from the Bastille jail in Paris and embarks upon a journey to London in the hope of finding the daughter he never met.

From the award-winning translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey comes a brilliant new translation of Virgil's great epic Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles’ mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome. His voyage will take him...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Simon Callow, actor and director, known for his roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, and the BBC adaptation of A Christmas Carol. As a diplomat in turbulent fifteenth-century Florence, Niccolò Machiavelli knew...

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...

2017 has been a monumental year for Audible, having just celebrated our 20th anniversary, a milestone that would have never been possible without our wonderful and loyal listeners. One of our major commitments is bringing new and diverse audio experiences to our members, so this year, as our gift to you, we pulled together a collection that reflects a little bit of everything we’ve been up to recently.

Berlin, the Greek Islands, London and California. 1928, 1932, 1938 and 1940. Four portraits, four settings, four narrators, all known as ‘Christopher Isherwood’. Down There on a Visit tells the vivid stories of Isherwood’s life that, together with The Berlin Novels (Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin), were to have comprised his great unfinished epic novel. Delivering the reflective, candid narration that touches on identity, desire, alienation and the urge to belong, Simon Callow brings an exquisite sparkle to each character sketch.

In Letters of Note: Cats, Shaun Usher collects together the most engaging missives that celebrate, eulogise, rail against and analyse the idiosyncratic ways of our feline companions. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life, with contributions from Sanjeev Bhaskar, Louise...

In Letters of Note: War, Shaun Usher brings together some of the most remarkable letters that encapsulate the human experience of war, from unimaginable feats of courage and compassion, to unthinkable episodes of violence and horror. A star-studded cast of readers brings the letters to life...

David Edgar is among the UK’s leading contemporary dramatists, well known for his powerful plays chronicling Britain's changing political landscape over the past 50 years. More than 60 of his original plays, adaptations and translations have been performed around the world, and in 2023 he was honoured with a Writers’ Guild Outstanding Contribution award for his service to British playwriting. This radio anthology contains some of his most notable work.

First published in 1975, The Unexpurgated Code is a gloriously improper manual of survival and manners for social climbers, elegant impostors, wounded underdogs and anyone attempting to navigate the absurdities of civilized life. Across hundreds of indispensable lessons, Donleavy dispenses fearless advice on improving your accent, choosing the correct neighbours, surviving disastrous parties, behaving at funerals, confronting the rich and powerful, and preserving one's dignity during even the most unlikely personal catastrophe.

A Garland of Views presents both a concise commentary by the eighth-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava on a chapter from the Guhyagarbha Tantra on the different Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical views, including the Great Perfection (Dzogchen), and an explicative commentary on Padmasambhava’s text by the 19th century scholar Jamgön Mipham (1846-1912).

Ackroyd portrays London from the time of the druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century, noting magnificence in both epochs, but this is not a simple chronological record. It is a comprehensive account, animated by Ackroyd's concern for the close relationship between the present and the past as well as by what he describes as the peculiar "echoic" quality of London whereby its texture and history actively affect the lives and personalities of its citizens.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a colossus of German literature and a true Renaissance man. A novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist and philosopher, he wrote the first international bestseller, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and his epic masterpiece Faust is one of the most famous and celebrated dramas of all time.

One of Russia's most iconic poets, Alexander Pushkin is often described as the 'father of Russian literature'. A gambler, playboy and social reformer, he was exiled by the Tsar for his controversial poetry and died aged 37 in a duel defending his wife's honour. This BBC Radio anthology includes dramatisations and readings of Pushkin's most famous works - plus biographical programmes and an original play based on his life.

Insightful, incisive & enlightening, the first volume of Simon Callow's comprehensive biography of Orson Welles. Now in abridged audio, Callow's vastly entertaining chronicle of Welles's first 26 years seems even finer than it did in 1995. The author's ability to skewer his subject's evasions...

A splendid new volume of missives about art, from the author of the bestselling Letters of Note collections. Vincent Van Gogh curses the stare of the blank canvas. Salvador Dali contemplates mailing a piece of his 'lobster-colored pajamas' to Federico Lorca. Hollis Frampton, to the MoMA, demands...

A powerful new volume of missives about combat by Alexander Hamilton, General Sherman, Evelyn Waugh, Kurt Vonnegut, and more, from the author of the bestselling Letters of Note collections Defeated Cossacks taunt the pompous sultan of the Ottoman Empire. A black corporal beseeches Abraham...

From Napoléon Bonaparte and Frida Kahlo to Nelson Mandela and Ayn Rand glimpse the ardors of artists, painters, writers, and more in this touching volume of beautiful missives, from the author of the bestselling Letters of Note collections Beethoven yearns to see his famously unknown Immortal...

From Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to John Lennon Prince and Kim Gordon, tune in to the evocative expressions of treasured composers, musicians, singers, and songwriters in this enchanting volume from the compiler of the bestselling Letters of Note collections Verdi writes to his publisher about a...