Showing results by narrator "Michael John" in All Categories

Dava Sobel’s thoughtful play brings to life the story of Nicolaus Copernicus, the Renaissance astronomer, and mathematician who proposed the heliocentric model of the universe in which the Sun stands at the center. Plagued by self-doubt and threatened by religious censure, Copernicus resisted the publication of his work until just before his death in 1543. The play follows Copernicus in those final years as he works to complete his research with the help of Georg Rheticus, a young disciple from Wittenberg, Germany.

Set entirely on a London bus travelling from Hoxton to Highbury and taking place over just 36 minutes, the events of The 392 unfold through a cast of charismatic characters coming from very different worlds. On the 392 are all the familiar faces you might expect to see on any bus ride through inner-city London in the grip of gentrification; delinquent school kids, the high-flyers, the weird, the wonderful and the homeless. These Londoners share two things: a bus journey and a threat. A threat which is ready to blow apart everything they know.

Tanner Bland leaves his Virginia home on foot to fight for Dixie and rides back on a fine horse. Most folks would call that a profit - until they consider his loss. Thinking him dead, his intended marries his brother shortly before Tanner returns home. With no desire to remain in Virginia, Tanner heads west to join an old army pal. The two friends are destined for a world of trouble in the form of the Leach brothers in the untamed Montana Territory.

I’m the jokester of the group. I always have that one-liner that lightens the mood, even in the darkest of moments. I lost my wife 11 years ago when I was on my first deployment, so now I'm just trying to keep things light. And because of that, I refuse to put my heart out there again while I’m a Marine. So when a beautiful single mom moves in next door, I’m going to fight that attraction tooth and nail. Thing is, Maggie doesn’t want to be with me, either. Her late husband was a Marine, and there’s no way she’ll let her daughter go through that again. Or herself.

Sir John Gielgud, Sir Michael Hordern, Leo McKern, and Edward Hardwicke star in this unabridged performance of Shakespeare's Richard II.

He is brave, tough as leather, and has left behind a trail of deadly enemies - outlaws he's hunted down or killed with the cold heart of a man used to violence. A feared bounty hunter and the scourge of bad men everywhere, Flintlock carries an ancient Hawken muzzle-loader, handed down to him from the mountain man who raised him. He stands as the towering hero of a new Johnstone saga.

A master of the psychological crime genre, Patricia Highsmith is most famous for her quintet of best-selling Ripley novels, and her groundbreaking thriller Strangers on a Train (notably adapted as a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock). This extensive collection encompasses her best-known works, as well as selected short stories and three programmes about the author herself and her greatest creation, charismatic anti-hero Tom Ripley.

In this missive Ambrose Bierce recounts two days in his life, April 6 and April 7, 1862, perhaps the two most significant days of his life. He and over 100,000 other combatants have gathered about a small church near the town of Corinth, "a wretched place--the capital of a swamp, two days' march west of the Tennessee River". The church is Shiloh, and it will lend its name to the great battle that took place there.

Archaeologist Annja Creed reluctantly accepts an assignment on behalf of the US Government. She is to lead an expedition to the top of Mount Ararat to find the truth about what is thought to be the remains of Noah's Ark. But while she doubts the massive anomaly is really the Ark, she can't help but wonder what is up there. Annja must escort a group of militant fundamentalists through civil unrest in eastern Turkey, but the impending war is nothing compared to the danger that lies hidden within the team.

Spread across post-apocalyptic North America, the nine great cities ruled by the alien-human hybrid barons have crumbled…ushering in not defeat, but a new epoch of alien rule of Earth. But their assault is threatened by a force of extraordinary humans, the Cerberus rebels, dedicated to freeing humanity from the aeons of slavery that the alien Annunaki race have placed upon it. In Louisiana, a salvaged piece of sentient spaceship signals the beginning of the long-awaited second salvo.

Lady Cecelia is to mysteries what a pack of foxhounds is to a fox...and her interference brings her to disaster. But Captain Serrano isn't about to let her employer - and now her friend - be destroyed. With the help of Lady Cecelia's nephew and his friends, including Lord Thornbuckle's adventurous daughter, Heris plots a rescue, while trying to re-balance her own life and recover relationships with some of her former crew. In the process, she and Lady Cecelia bring down a government.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appeared frequently in socialist-leaning British periodicals, such as the Clarion, Labour Leader, and Social Democrat. Based on familiar genres, these stories were meant to entertain readers of all ages - and some challenged the conventional values promoted in children’s literature for the middle class. Acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen brings together more than 40 of the best and most enduring examples of these stories in one beautiful volume.

When Merv and Pam got divorced, that should have been the end of their relationship. But here they are, trying to turn a veggie-and-vodka bistro in a cyber café, while Merv is still living in Pam's front garden in a small caravan. Merv's dreams of being a rock star failed a long time ago, so the Cyber Pass is now his only hope.

The drug crisis hits home for Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong when the son of her outlaw lover Cort Wesley Masters nearly dies from an opioid overdose. On top of that, she’s dealing with the inexplicable tragedy of a small Texas town where all the residents died in a single night. When Caitlin realizes that these two pursuits are intrinsically connected, she finds herself following a trail that will take her to the truth behind the crisis that claimed 75,000 lives last year. Just in time, since the same force that has taken over the opiate trade has even more deadly intentions in mind.

Nathan Stone returns to his Virginia home to discover that the horrors of the Civil War are not over; his family has been wiped out, and their home burned by seven renegades. Nathan swears an oath on his father’s grave to find and kill each of the men responsible. He begins a lonely journey that will take him south and west, on a vengeance trail that crosses the paths of some infamous figures, including “Wild Bill” Hickok, Roy Bean, and Frank and Jesse James.

Five centuries after nuclear war laid waste to the land, the future of humankind may rest with the fishes. John Rourke, Natalia Anastasia Tiemerovna and a band of Marines battle tyranny beneath the sea to defend liberty and justice under the stars.

The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty. Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honor and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all. But Arlen Bales, the Warded Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honor refuse.

Esmay Suiza wasn't a member of a great Navy family like the Serranos. She'd had to make her way on grit alone, which meant it wasn't likely she'd ever make admiral and "hoist her own flag." Well, that was fine with her: all Esmay wanted was a secure berth where she could be part of something greater than herself, and otherwise just live her life in peace.

Forerunner to the renowned operas, The Figaro Plays by Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais are a celebration of how intelligence and wit can bring any servant level with their aristocratic masters. Considered scandalous in their time, the plays went on to be adapted by Rossini (The Barber of Seville) and Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro) to become some of the most popular and acclaimed operas of all time. These original plays show us the stories behind these popular operas.

Imagine waking up one morning and finding that you are a giant insect, a cockroach, still perceiving your surroundings and family as they are, but unable to comminicate. This is what happens to Gregor Samsa. Yesterday he was a traveling salesman, and today he finds himself a repulsive vermin.