Showing results by narrator "Alan Matthews" in All Categories

When a small town relies on tourists flocking to its baths, will a report of dangerously polluted waters be enough to shut them down? Henrik Ibsen weighs the cost of public health versus a town's livelihood and skewers the complicity of the masses in his classic and still timely play.

Shakespeare’s timeless story of revenge, corruption, and murder is considered one of the greatest works in the English language. Prince Hamlet sets out to avenge his beloved father's death at the hand of his uncle Claudius - but Hamlet's spiral into grief and madness will have permanent and immutable consequences for the Kingdom of Denmark. Composed over 400 years ago, Hamlet remains one of the theater’s most studied and performed works, and is presented here in a stunning, sound-rich, full-cast recording.

In Tennessee, 17-year-old Breckinridge Wallace knew the laws of nature. When his life was in danger, he showed a fearless instinct to fight back. Killing a thug who was sent to kill him got Breckinridge exiled from his Smoky Mountain home. Brutally wounding an Indian attacker earned him an enemy for life...Now, from the bustling streets of St. Louis to the vast stillness of the Missouri headwaters, Breckinridge is discovering a new world of splendor, violence, promise and betrayal. Most off all, he is clawing his way to manhood behind the law of the gun.

The most iconic love story of all time, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is an epic-scale tragedy of desire and revenge. Despite the bitter rivalry that exists between their families, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet have fallen madly in love. But when the long-running rivalry boils over into murder, the young couple must embark on a dangerous and deadly mission to preserve their love at any cost. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Calista Flockhart as Juliet.

Leaving their Pennsylvania home to forge a new life in the untamed Oregon Territory of 1845, the Colter family is ambushed by a kill crazy gang of cutthroats on the Oregon Trail. Fifteen-year-old Tim Colter manages to escape and hide — only to return and find his parents butchered, his sisters Nancy and Margaret missing, and one last killer waiting for his return.

Crater City, New Mexico, is a bustling mining town brimming with the stench of men hungry to get rich the old fashioned way - killing the competition. Dennis Conroy is the owner of the biggest saloon in town, and he needs a few good sharpshooters to help protect surveyors laying out a route for a spur rail lie before his rival Hugh Thornton beats him to it. Jo Buckhorn’s handy with a gun so he takes the job.

When Grey and Ben fell in love at 13, they believed they'd be together forever. They never dreamed that three days before their wedding, 20-year-old Ben would suddenly die from an unknown heart condition, destroying his would-be-bride's world. Grey would have spent the next two years simply going through the motions if it hadn't been for their best friend, Jagger.

There’s nothing like a wedding to bring families together. And there’s no place like the Sugarloaf Ranch to throw a foot-stomping hoedown — even if it turns into a gun-blazing showdown. Smoke and Sally Jensen are delighted that their son Louis is marrying the lovely widow he met during a perilous stagecoach journey through the Donner Pass. The whole family welcomes the bride and her young son with open arms. In fact, everyone is invited to the party — even the handsome stranger who rescued Louis’s twin sister Denise from a runaway mustang.

When they were younger, Knox Alexander swore to Harlow Evans that he would wait for her to turn 18, so they could be together. But that was three and a half years away, and Harlow couldn't ask him to give up all the fun and thrills of going away to college for her. As the years passed, Knox remained a constant in her life - whether she liked it or not - but when her 18th birthday came around, Harlow's heart belonged to someone else.

After a long hard journey up the Chisholm Trail, Kate Kerrigan is in Dodge City, facing a mystery of murder. A cowboy she hired, a man with a notorious past, has been accused of killing a prostitute and sentenced to hang. Kate still trusts Hank Lowry. And when a hired killer comes after her, she knows she has struck a nerve. Someone has framed Hank for murder - in order to cover up a more sinister and deadly crime spawned in the musty backrooms of the Kansas boomtown....

Berkely Mather (real name John Evan Weston-Davies) was a British author who wrote sixteen novels ranging from historical adventures to espionage fiction. Included here are some of his best radio thrillers, beginning with The Sand Leopard, charting the exploits of Geth Straker, captain of the Peregrine. The trouble-hunting mariner is commissioned to sail to the Red Sea in search of sunken Second World War bullion – but are his two new crew members what they seem?

Molière wrote some of the most durable and penetrating comedies of all time. The Imaginary Cuckold and The School for Husbands are two of his grand farces of marriage and misunderstanding, one set in Paris and the other in the provinces. In The School for Husbands, a tyrannical husband-to-be seeks to isolate his ward, while unwittingly carrying her messages of devotion to her lover. In The Imaginary Cuckold, an enraged husband imagines his wife is unfaithful, but is reluctant to defend his honor.

Deed Corrigan earned his reputation as a gunfighter - the hard way. But now, after forging cattle trails and fighting off the Comanche, he’s setting his sights on a brighter future. With the help of his older brother Blue, a Civil War veteran who lost his arm in battle, Deed turns the Rafter C homestead into a successful, working cattle ranch. But when a land-grubbing banker tries to wipe out the competition - slaughtering ranchers, robbing farmers, and building an army of hired killers - Deed and Blue have no choice but to fight back with everything they’ve got.

Arjuna, a young man from India, comes to the USA to study, falls in love with an American girl and marries her against the wishes of his conservative parents, thereby alienating them. He blames his wife for his rift with his parents.

One of the BBC's most acclaimed programmes, Great Lives has been a regular Radio 4 fixture for 20 years, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. Every week, a famous name is invited into the studio to nominate a figure from the past who has inspired them, and discuss their subject with the presenter and a guest expert.

Even if you've never been a parent or don't plan to be one this book is for you. Look within and discover how your own upbringing and family patterns influence your life experiences today. Listen and discover what you can do to change the patterns that no longer serve you. Learn how to assist yourself and your children in becoming self-directed, self-actualized and loving human beings.

To 16-year-old Gary Peel, Linger is home. His father is manager of the Pennsylvania restaurant; his mom takes care of the books; and Gary’s older brother, Bobby, works there as a waiter. That is, until he decides to join the army. The only one from their hometown to enlist, Bobby becomes an instant hero. At Linger, Gary takes Bobby's place waiting tables - and finds himself drawn into the correspondence between his brother and Lynn Dunlinger, the beautiful, preppy daughter of the restaurant's owner.

Soldier and Spouse and Their Traveling House puts a witty spin on the dynamic of newlywed husband and wife trekking across two continents during their first three years of marriage. Who heads this household? The thrill-seeking soldier? Or the sensible spouse? Come along with this twenty-something military couple on their off-duty weekends as they dash in and out of trouble from the Emerald Isle to cruising down the Nile and many places in between-Western Europe, the Baltic, North Africa, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean.

In a world where birth heralds a battle cry, join an exiled protagonist on an odyssey through Ngoni Chiwara's debut chapbook, 'Birth Penalty.' Here, punishment is shifted across the corridors of time, echoing the deeds of past lives. Chiwara leads listeners through a tapestry of poignant short stories and evocative poetry: from the streets of Glasgow to the ancient pathways of a medieval city in Sub-Saharan Africa. Explore the depths of desire, the complexities of tribalism, the shadows of corruption, and the whispers of spirituality, all refracted through the prism of immigration.