Jonathan Holloway has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 10 narrators. The most-rated is George Orwell: A BBC Radio Collection.
The Real George Orwell
Summary
A series of four BBC Radio full-cast dramas exploring the disjuncture between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. George Orwell - the pen name of Eric Blair - was a writer and political commentator who is very hard to pin down. He is a complex mass of confusions - an antiestablishment, pro-English, ex-Etonian, ex-policeman and socialist who was ardently antiauthoritarian. He was as antifascist as he was anticommunist, a former Spanish Civil War soldier who was antiwar but pro the Second World War. Burma: After an undistinguished academic career at Eton, Eric leaves in December 1921. When the girl he hopes to marry rejects him, he sets sail for Burma to join the colonial police. His experiences in Burma will affect him profoundly. When he rejects the Empire and returns to England, Blair begins to spend more and more time with the poor. Dreaming: In September 1938, Eric and Eileen Blair leave London for Marrakech. He is hoping that the climate will be good for his health and that he will be able to complete his novel, Coming Up for Air. But the bruising reception he received following the publication of Homage to Catalonia is troubling Eric. And both Eric and Eileen are still feeling guilty about the fate of one of their Spanish Civil War comrades, Georges Kopp. Loving: Eric Blair's relationship with the opposite sex could be a distraught one; over the course of his lifetime, he made several awkward marriage proposals to different women. But his relationship with Eileen O'Shaugnessy, whom he married in 1935, had a huge influence both on his life and his writing. Jura: In 1947, the year after Eileen's death, Eric leaves London and moves to Jura in the Scottish Hebrides, with his sister Avril and his three-year-old son. He is suffering from tuberculosis but is determined to try to make a go of living off the land. But most of all he is determined to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four, his final book. Cast: Eric Blair . . . Joseph Millson Eileen Blair… Lyndsey Marshall Jacintha Buddicom . . . Sophie Roberts Wilson . . . Joseph Kloska Inspector d'Souza . . . Ernest Ignatius Georges Kopp…Ewan Bailey Avril Blair…Liza Sadovy Ricky Blair…James Foster Other parts played by Armaan Kirmani, Derek Riddell, Alun Raglan, Paul Stonehouse, Ben Crowe, Will Howard, Alun Raglan, Alexandra Guelff, Lizzy Watts. Burma was written by Mike Walker and directed by Kate McAll. Dreaming was written by Mike Walker and directed by Jeremy Mortimer. Loving was written by Jonathan Holloway and directed by Kate McAll. Jura was written by Jonathan Holloway and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.
©2018 BBC Worldwide (P)2018 BBC Worldwide
George Orwell: A BBC Radio Collection
Summary
A radio anthology of George Orwell's finest novels, memoirs and essays, plus four biographical dramas and a bonus documentary, The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four. Visionary author and journalist George Orwell was the man behind two of the best loved and most influential novels of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. This collection celebrating his life and work features dramatisations of both these classic books, with stellar casts including Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tamsin Greig and Nicky Henson. Also included is a drama based on his autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, starring Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal. Four biographical radio plays by Mike Walker and Jonathan Holloway - Burma, Dreaming, Loving and Jura - explore further episodes in Orwell's fascinating life, showing the disconnection between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. Timeless examples of his essays and journalism are showcased here, including 'A Hanging', 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', 'My Country Right or Left', 'Pleasure Spots' and 'As I Please' (all read by Clive Merrison), while Joseph Millson narrates Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell's vivid memoir of his time living among the poor in Europe's two great cities. Finally, in The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four, David Aaronovitch examines what led avowed socialist George Orwell to write a book beloved of the Right, revealing how the novel grew from a forgotten political world shaped by the atom bomb. George Orwell worked for BBC Radio from August 1941 to November 1943, and even went on air himself. Sadly, none of the programmes in which he took part survive - in those days, radio was essentially a live medium and broadcasts were not recorded for posterity. But Orwell's connection to the BBC remains a fascinating part of its wartime history.
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd