High Medieval

Here is the multi award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance, with comprehensive commentary and analysis, enabling students to fully understand and appreciate the play. Judge for yourself whether Lear is "a man more sinned against than sinning" in this moral tale that pits wisdom and age against ambition and youth. Experience and examine the power of Shakespeare's most cruel and violent tragedy.

This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis, enabling any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Judge for yourself whether Lear is "a man more sinned against than sinning" in this moral tale that pits wisdom and age against ambition and youth. Experience and examine the power of Shakespeare's most cruel and violent tragedy.

'Terrible Apart' - Separated by fate and circumstance the Fitzwarren brothers find themselves on very different missions. Trouble is brewing on England's border with Scotland, and rebel Protestant Scottish nobles are begging Elizabeth to help them throw off French rule. One man can help to unite Scotland, and that man is John Knox. Denied entry to England, hated by Elizabeth and excommunicated by the church Knox is not a man to be associated with. Lord Burghley tasks Richard Fitzwarren with delivering him to Scotland, knowing full well that he can deny any involvement should things not go ...

Here is the multi award-winning SmartPass study guide, with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis to allow any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Meet literature's greatest villain in this tragedy, fuelled by jealous rage. Journey into the twisted mind of Iago, who freely admits, "I am not what I am", and truly get under the skin of this wondrous play.

Is the Voice Lisa’s Protector or a Predator? When her father Alexander is murdered, Lisa’s safe, carefree world unravels. At 16, her only escape is to flee from the mayhem and chaos that promises to come crashing down on her very being. From her wicked mother. From her drunken stepbrother. And from the greedy church. The year was 1,000 AD. Bright and clever, she becomes the eyes and ears of her papa’s many enterprises. Lisa is his confidant and the son he desires as an heir. Afraid for his own daughter’s future, Alexander shares a plan to her to follow upon his death. Within days of...

I never wanted to be a hero. I acted on impulse and did a really stupid thing to save a lot of people. And it worked. Except that I wasn't the only one who did a stupid thing that day. After I drank the potion that would have been used to destroy the Tiger Army and possibly all of Stalana, the Tiger Lord did something that had never been done before; he made me a faerie. Yep, that idiot gave me a piece of his soul and then his Goddess used it to transform me into one of them. Now, I'm immortal. Sure, sounds great. But I'm also bound to the man who saved my life. I feel things for him that I...

Worried that old age will inevitably mean losing your libido, your health, and possibly your marbles too? Well, Cicero has some good news for you. In How to Grow Old, the great Roman orator and statesman eloquently describes how you can make the second half of life the best part of all - and why you might discover that reading and gardening are actually far more pleasurable than sex ever was.

Paris, 1396. Scribe Christine de Pizan is shocked when the duke of Orleans' fools find a baby, wrapped in rags and covered in sores, abandoned in the palace gardens. Was there really a wicked plan to substitute the child for the queen's own baby daughter and blame the duchess of Orleans, Valentina Visconti? Who would commit such an evil act, and why?

Gyrth son of Godwin finds his nuptials interrupted by news that King Edward intends to rid his country of Earl Godwin and his clan once and for all. He creates a situation Godwin cannot win, and the whole family are dispossessed and thrown out of the country. Godwin has a plan for revenge, but before he can put it into action the kidnapping of the daughter of the Count of Flanders puts everything in jeopardy. Only with the help of a wild girl from the Airish lands can the brothers fight to regain what is truly theirs. The story is based around the events of 1051, when Edward of England and ...

Book One. A bedtime story about the Adventures of the Abbey Mice. For children who love to allow their imaginations to run free.

Book two. A bedtime story about the exciting adventures of the Abbey Mice who live high up in a medieval Abbey in the little town of Ramsley. For children who love to allow their imaginations to run free.

Argonautika is the story of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. This epic story of gods and goddesses, mythical beasts, thrilling adventures, and narrow escapes may be the oldest surviving Greek myth, which Homer referred to as something "familiar to all." Listen to this masterpiece of classical literature in an all-new translation that captures the timeless magic and quiet humor of this ancient legend.

Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom examines Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal.

The next world over is still a world away. Almost a year ago, 12 year old Tommy Brinn ran away from Katy in the park as they were about to have their first kiss. That was the night she disappeared. While being bullied in the park on the way home from school, Tommy, his bully Matt, and his would be protector Peter are all transported through a portal in the largest tree in the park. On the other end they find a world different from ours, where people are enslaved to only an elite few. Each boy is challenged physically and mentally in this land, tentatively forming an alliance to find a way ...

Homer's masterpiece tells the story of Odysseus, the ideal Greek hero, as he travels home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, a journey of 10 years and countless thrilling adventures. Rich in Greek folklore and myth, featuring gods and goddesses, monsters and sorceresses, The Odyssey has enchanted listeners around the world for thousands of years.

The idea of the sword-wielding samurai, beholden to a strict ethical code and trained in deadly martial arts, dominates popular conceptions of the samurai. As early as the late 17th century, they were heavily featured in literature, art, theater, and even comedy. This book gives listeners access to the real samurai as they lived, fought, and served. Much as they capture the modern imagination, the samurai commanded influence over the politics, arts, philosophy, and religion of their own time, and controlled Japan from the 14th century until their demise in the mid-19th century.

Discovering that his Sheen lady has been sadistically killed, Kyre sets out to avenge her death, equally pitilessly. But will the quarrelling members of the ruling Volko family allow him to have his own way in anything? Is the path he treads a defiant whim, or the destiny his star has chosen for him? Can he find which of the stars is his? Or is he – as all tell him – truly from The Pit? The demands of the Rua Sisterhood mount up, and he has to find ways to satisfy them, while attempting to hold out against the massing enemies of the Lordlands realm – the rebellious provincial lords; ...

As Kyre returns to Lordstown, what awaits him? If he can escape the riotous charms of Lind-on-Hill, will it be his Troop of high-born guerrilla fighters, bent of ridiculing him, betraying him, or begging him to lead them into battle again? Or will the lord's powerful, scheming wife, the Lady Delfindiana have tasks for him? Tasks that could break him, or make him a fortune in silver, or lord of a second province within the Lordlands? Is it violence and vengeance that await him in Sabri Province? And in Bati? Lost children; thieving travelling entertainers; a doomed wedding; meeting an old/...

Last seen in the bar at Bowfield Spring, warily surrendering to Kellimar Sord’s challenging invitation to go through the doors to the bedroom areas, Kyre felt akin to a sinking ship, recalling the Blood Eagle, the EagleWing that had been hovering over the buildings when he entered. ‘It wasn’t out there for no purpose,’ he was thinking. And now, he awakens, not knowing where he is, trying to piece together the happenings that almost killed him. If he recovers from his injuries, what might await him should he return to Lordstown? the voluptuous, but perfidious arms of the Rua ...

Two villains become heroes as their decaying empires clash. Two hundred years before the events of the Apócryfa trilogy, the fledgling Kingdom of Nevermore faces wild monsters and rebellious mountain colonies. As plague takes the realm, a rare knight defends an outpost and makes tough decisions to save her people while a young summoner shaman seeks power for her village from dark spirits at a steep cost. Both women, innocent yet guilty of causing devastation, will be transformed by their hard choices. Sacrifice changes all.