Mr. Gareth Russell has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is The Ship of Dreams.
Young and Damned and Fair
Summary
Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this interpretation of the tragic life of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, breaks new ground in our understanding of the very young woman who became queen at a time of unprecedented social and political tension and whose terrible errors in judgment quickly led her to the executioner's block. On the morning of July 28, 1540, as King Henry's VIII's former confidant Thomas Cromwell was being led to his execution, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of a country simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later the king's fifth wife would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason. The broad outlines of Catherine's career might be familiar, but her story up until now has been incomplete. Unlike previous accounts of her life, which portray her as a naïve victim of an ambitious family, this compelling and authoritative biography will shed new light on Catherine Howard's rise and downfall by reexamining her motives and showing her in her context, a milieu that goes beyond her family and the influential men of the court to include the aristocrats and, most critically, the servants who surrounded her and who, in the end, conspired against her. By illuminating Catherine's entwined upstairs/downstairs worlds as well as societal tensions beyond the palace walls, the author offers a fascinating portrayal of court life in the 16th century and a fresh analysis of the forces beyond Catherine's control that led to her execution - from diplomatic pressure and international politics to the long-festering resentments against the queen's household at court. Young and Damned and Fair changes our understanding of one of history's most famous women while telling the compelling and very human story of complex individuals attempting to survive in a dangerous age.
©2016 Gareth Russell. Excerpt from "Die Lorelei" by Stevie Smith, from Collected Poems of Stevie Smith, ©1957. Reprinted from New Directions Publishing Corp. (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd.
The Ship of Dreams
Summary
This original and “meticulously researched retelling of history’s most infamous voyage” (Denise Kiernan, New York Times best-selling author) uses the sinking of the Titanic as a prism through which to examine the end of the Edwardian era and the seismic shift modernity brought to the Western world. “While there are many Titanic books, this is one readers will consider a favorite” (Voyage). In April 1912, six notable people were among those privileged to experience the height of luxury - first-class passage on “the ship of dreams”, the RMS Titanic: Lucy Leslie, countess of Rothes; son of the British Empire Tommy Andrews; American captain of industry John Thayer and his son, Jack; Jewish American immigrant Ida Straus; and American model and movie star Dorothy Gibson. Within a week of setting sail, they were all caught up in the horrifying disaster of the Titanic’s sinking, one of the biggest news stories of the century. Today, we can see their stories and the Titanic’s voyage as the beginning of the end of the established hierarchy of the Edwardian era. Writing in his signature elegant prose and using previously unpublished sources, deck plans, journal entries, and surviving artifacts, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of these first-class travelers to immerse us in a time of unprecedented change in British and American history. Through their intertwining lives, he examines social, technological, political, and economic forces such as the nuances of the British class system, the explosion of competition in the shipping trade, the birth of the movie industry, the Irish Home Rule Crisis, and the Jewish American immigrant experience while also recounting their intimate stories of bravery, tragedy, and selflessness. This is “a beautiful requiem” (The Wall Street Journal) in which “readers get the story of this particular floating Tower of Babel in riveting detail, and with all the wider context they could want” (Christian Science Monitor).
©2019 Gareth Russell (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio