Anton Lesser has narrated 42 audiobooks on Listento.it by 37 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 1,019 ratings. The most-rated is The Clan of the Cave Bear.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
Summary
This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly - she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.
©1980 by Jean M. Auel. (P)1986 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
The Early Middle Ages
Summary
The Early Middle Ages - the years from A.D. 650 to 1000 - were crucial to Europe's future social and political development. These 24 lectures trace a journey from Scandinavia across northern and central Europe to the farthest reaches of the Byzantine and Islamic empires, providing an exciting new look an era often simply called the "Dark Ages." Given the period's dismal reputation and its temporal remoteness from the 21st century, you'll be surprised to learn about some of the most challenging questions historians have ever had to tackle: Why did the Roman Empire fall? Why did the ancient world give way to the medieval world? Why did Christian monotheism become the dominant religion in Europe? You'll meet some of the era's exciting figures, such as St. Augustine and Justinian, and you'll consider the extent to which the historical realities of King Arthur and Charlemagne match up to the legends that have become attached to their names. You'll also look at the era's effect on the Vikings, the rise of the Carolingians, and the golden age of Islamic rule in Spain. Professor Daileader also explores the contrasting historical theories offered by two extremely influential historians: Edward Gibbon, the English author of the monumental The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, whose explanations closely followed those of the Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th centuries; and Henri Pirenne, the Belgian thinker who injected a newfound emphasis on social and especially economic factors into the analysis of history. You'll see why the era belies its reputation as dark and dismal, but you'll come away with a new appreciation for this once-lost era. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2004 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2004 The Great Courses
The Ruby in the Smoke
Summary
An unabridged reading of Philip Pullman's nerve-shattering thriller, set in the murky streets and opium dens of Old London. When 16-year old Sally's father drowns in suspicious circumstances, she is left to fend for herself in Victorian London. Although she doesn't know it, she is already in terrible danger.
©2014 Audible, Inc. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Terry Pratchett: BBC Radio Drama Collection
Summary
A collection of the full-cast BBC Radio dramatisations of novels by Terry Pratchett. Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different.... Published for the very first time are seven full-cast BBC Radio dramatisations of Terry Pratchett’s novels, with star-studded casts including Martin Jarvis, Sheila Hancock, Anton Lesser, Philip Jackson, Alex Jennings and Mark Heap. Mort Hopeless young peasant Mort is hired as an apprentice to Death. He'll have free board, use of the company horse and being dead isn’t even compulsory. In fact, it's a dream job - until he discovers that it can be killer for his love life.... Wyrd Sisters Three witches meet on a blasted heath. A king is cruelly murdered. A child heir and the kingdom’s crown are both missing. But Granny Weatherwax finds that meddling in royal politics is a lot more complicated than certain playwrights would have you believe.... Guards! Guards! In Ankh-Morpork, the Haves and the Have-Nots are about fall out. Again. The Night Watch’s Captain Vimes is used to this but when the Have-Nots find the key to a lethal, dormant weapon that even they don’t understand, he knows it’s time so sober up. Eric When precocious young Eric Thursley summons a demon from the loathsome pit to fulfil his every wish, he wants what everyone wants – immortality, to rule the world and have the most beautiful woman love him. Instead he gets Rincewind, the Disc’s most incompetent wizard. Small Gods On the Discworld, Gods are as numerous as herring roe, all elbowing for space at the top. In such a competitive environment, you need an acolyte and fast. For the Great God Om, Brutha is the Chosen One, or at least the only One available.... Night Watch Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy, especially when there is a serial killer on the loose who targets coppers. Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch is back in his own rough, tough past and he has a job to do. Bonus Story In addition to these Discworld novels, this collection also includes a full-cast dramatisation of Only You Can Save Mankind, from the Johnny Maxwell series. As an alien fleet crosses his computer screen, Johnny prepares to blow the ScreeWee into a million pieces....
©2018 Terry Pratchett (P)2018 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
The Shadow in the North
Summary
The year is 1878, and Sally Lockhart has started her own financial consulting business. When a client loses a fortune in the unexpected collapse of a British shipping firm, Sally is determined to find out why. But as she comes closer to learning the identity of the firm's elusive owner, she discovers that her questions are far from simple...and that the answers could cost her her life.
©1986, 1988 Philip Pullman (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
Empire of Silver
Summary
The eagerly awaited 4th novel in the bestselling Conqueror series, continuing the life and adventures of the mighty Khan dynasty. Genghis Khan is dead, but his legend and his legacy live on. His son Ogedai has built a white city on a great plain and made a capital for the new nation. Now the armies have gathered to see which of Genghis' sons has the strength to be khan. The Mongol empire has been at peace for two years, but whoever survives will face the formidable might of their great enemy, China’s Song dynasty. The great leader Tsubodai sweeps into the west: through Russia, over the Carpathian mountains and into Hungary. The Templar knights have been broken and there is no king or army to stop him reaching France. But at the moment of Tsubodai's greatest triumph, as his furthest scouts reach the northern mountains of Italy, Tsubodai must make a decision that will change the course of history forever.
©2010 Conn Iggulden (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Dissolution
Summary
Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church, and the country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials, and the greatest network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: the monasteries are to be dissolved. But on the Sussex coast, at the monastery of Scarnsea, events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell's commissioner, Robin Singleton, has been found dead, his head severed from his body. His horrific murder is accompanied by equally sinister acts of sacrilege: a black cockerel sacrificed on the alter, and the disappearance of Scarnsea's Great Relic. Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of reform, has been sent by Cromwell into this atmosphere of treachery and death. But Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything he hears and everything that he intrinsically believes.
© C. J. Sansom; (P) Macmillan Publishers Ltd
The Tiger in the Well
Summary
Sally is 25, and somebody wants to destroy her. She receives divorce papers from a man she has never met, let alone married - yet this trap is so well laid that she is powerless to prove otherwise. When custody of her precious daughter is awarded to this evil stranger, it is the beginning of a terrifying struggle in which Sally will have to fight, with a gun if necessary, for the freedom of her family. The third instalment of the quartet. Sally is a surprising and modern heroine, and her fight against unknown and relentless evil in Victorian London makes an exhilarating and unforgettable novel. An unabridged reading of Philip Pullman's nerve-shattering thriller.
©2007 Phillip Pullman (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Dark Fire
Summary
It is 1540 and the hottest summer of the 16th century. Matthew Shardlake, believing himself out of favour with Thomas Cromwell, is busy trying to maintain his legal practice and keep a low profile. But his involvement with a murder case, defending a girl accused of brutally murdering her young cousin, brings him once again into contact with the king's chief minister - and a new assignment. The secret of Greek Fire, the legendary substance with which the Byzantines destroyed the Arab navies, has been lost for centuries. Now an official of the Court of Augmentations has discovered the formula in the library of a dissolved London monastery. When Shardlake is sent to recover it, he finds the official and his alchemist brother brutally murdered. The formula has disappeared. Now Shardlake must follow the trail of Greek Fire across Tudor London, while trying at the same time to prove his young client's innocence. But very soon he discovers nothing is as it seems.
© C. J. Sansom; (P) Macmillan Publishers Ltd
Lyra's Oxford
Summary
The Book of Dust, the long-awaited new novel from Philip Pullman set in the world of His Dark Materials and narrated by Michael Sheen, has been hailed by the New York Times as "a stunning achievement." Find it on audio from Listening Library. An exciting tale set in the world of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials saga Lyra's Oxford opens in the thrilling comfort and familiarity of Jordan College, where Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon sit on the sun-drenched roof looking out over all of Oxford. But their peace is shattered when a strange bird (a witch's daemon, on its own) tumbles out of the sky. It is Ragi, daemon of Yelena Pazhets, and he seeks a healing elixir from an infamous Oxford alchemist (and rumored man-slaughterer) to cure his witch of a strange new disease from the South. Lyra and Pan decide to help and guide him (witches are friends, of course), but the closer their winding walk leads them to the alchemist's house, the stronger Lyra's sense that she's walking into a deadly trap.
©2003 Philip Pullman (P)2003 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, a division of Random House, Inc.
The Ruby in the Smoke
Summary
In search of clues to the mystery of her father's death, 16-year-old Sally Lockhart ventures into the shadowy underworld of Victorian London. Pursued by villains at every turn, the intrepid Sally finally uncovers two dark mysteries, and realizes that she herself is the key to both.
©1985 Philip Pullman (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
Sovereign
Summary
Shortlisted for Theaksons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, 2008. Autumn, 1541. Following the uncovering of a plot against his throne in Yorkshire, King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to overawe his rebellious subjects there. Accompanied by a thousand soldiers, the cream of the nobility, and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, the king is to attend an extravagant submission of the local gentry at York. Already in the city are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant, Jack Barak. As well as assisting with the legal work of processing petitions to the king, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission: to ensure the welfare of an important but dangerous conspirator being returned to London for interrogation. But the murder of a local glazier involves Shardlake in deeper mysteries, connected not only to the prisoner in York Castle but to the royal family itself. As the king and the Great Progress arrive in the city, Barak stumbles upon a terrifying secret, and a chain of events unfolds that will lead Shardlake to the most terrifying fate a subject of Henry VIII can fear: his own imprisonment in the Tower of London.
© C.J. Sansom; (P) Macmillan Publishers Ltd
Brave New World
Summary
A gripping BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Aldous Huxley's classic dystopian novel.
It's 2116, and Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson are token rebels in an irretrievably corrupted society where promiscuity is the norm, eugenics a respectable science, and morality turned upside down. There is no poverty, crime or sickness - but no creativity, art or culture either. Human beings are merely docile citizens: divided into castes, brainwashed and controlled by the state and dependent on the drug soma for superficial gratification.
Into this sterile society comes an outsider, John - a man born into squalor and suffering, but raised on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a book which has shaped his entire life. When he discovers that treasured ideals such as love mean nothing in this 'brave new world', where romance is ridiculous, marriage shocking and parenthood shameful, John's world is shattered - and his reaction will show Bernard and Helmholtz what rebellion really means....
Based on Aldous Huxley's 1932 masterpiece, widely considered one of the greatest novels of all time, this chilling dramatisation set in a futuristic totalitarian society stars Jonathan Coy, Justin Salinger, Milton Lopes and Anton Lesser. Running time: 2 hours
©2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd. (P)2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd.
Countdown to Peace
Summary
An audio dramatisation in 6 episodes of With Our Backs To The Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 by David Stevenson, Professor of International History at the LSE. 'How Germany, having seemingly come so close to victory in the Spring and Summer of 1918, was forced on to the defensive in September. By October, it had initiated negotiations for peace, signing an armistice on November 11th.' This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 6 episodes to your Library now.
©2019 Audible, Ltd. (P)2019 Audible, Ltd.
The Reluctant Dragon
Summary
The Boy lives in a cottage with his mother and father, and the Dragon lives in a cave on the Downs. The Boy is his only friend. The Dragon is not at all the sort of Dragon one might expect to meet, however: he's polite and friendly.
Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
The Tiger in the Well
Summary
Sally Lockhart, trying to put her troubled past behind her after her fiance's death, has settled into a comfortable life with her daughter, Harriet, her career, and her London friends. But her world comes crashing down around her when a complete stranger claims to be both her husband and Harriet's father, casting doubt on her spotless reputation. Seeking the answers to this terrible dilemma, Sally realizes with growing horror that there is a guiding hand behind all this deceit; someone who hates her so passionately that he has devoted years to bringing about her ruin. She has no choice but to escape with her child into the crime-ridden slums of London's East End. Suddenly it isn't only Sally's reputation that is in danger.
©1991 Philip Pullman (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
Othello
Summary
This widely studied play is one of the "best sellers" of the Shakespeare canon. This production is the sixth Shakespeare play in the series undertaken by Naxos AudioBooks in conjunction with Cambridge University Press. The full cast also includes Roger May, Roy Spencer, Simon Weir, David Timson, Jonathan Keeble, Stephen Thorne, Peter Yapp, John McAndrew, and Alison Pettit. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos Audiobooks
Great Expectations
Summary
In this, perhaps Dickens' most profound and personal novel, we are invited to share in the sentimental education of Pip, the poor boy from the village forge who risks losing himself in snobbery and selfishness when he mysteriously inherits a fortune. The story moves from the bleak Kentish marshes of Pip's childhood to a thrilling climax that mingles tragedy and triumph.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)1996 Naxos AudioBooks Ltd.
Falco: The Complete BBC Radio Collection
Summary
Full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of the first five Falco novels by Lindsey Davis, starring Anton Lesser as Marcus Didius Falco. The Silver Pigs: One fine day, AD 70, Sosia Camillina quite literally runs into Marcus Didius Falco on the steps of the Forum. It seems Sosia is on the run from a couple of street toughs, and after a quick and dirty rescue, PI Falco wants to know why. Hoping for future favours from Sosia's powerful uncle, Falco embarks on an intricate case of smuggling, murder, and treason that reaches into the palace itself. Shadows in Bronze: Rome, AD 71. Against his better judgment, Marcus Didius Falco secretly disposes of a decayed corpse for the Emperor Vespasian, then heads for the beautiful Bay of Naples with his friend Petronius. But this will be no holiday: they have been sent to investigate the murderous members of a failed coup, now sunning themselves in luxurious villas and on fancy yachts in Neapolis, Capreae, and Pompeii. Venus in Copper: A small accounting error has left Marcus Didius Falco sharing a cell with a large rat. But the Roman Empire's most hard-done-by investigator is finally bailed out and promptly accepts a commission to help a family of freed slaves fend off a professional bribe.... The Iron Hand of Mars: Falco is dispatched to one of the most hostile parts of the empire to deliver a new standard, an iron hand, to one of the legions. Germania is cold, wet, dismal and full of dark forests inhabited by bloodthirsty barbarians, but Falco has an even bigger problem to worry about: he has forgotten Helena Justina's birthday, and she is being pursued by the Emperor's son Titus Caesar. Poseidon’s Gold: Returning to Rome after his mission to Germania, Falco finds that his mother is being harassed by a centurion named Censorinus, who says he is chasing a debt owed to him by Falco's late brother, Festus. When Falco refuses to cough up the money, he and Censorinus end up fighting...and later, the centurion turns up dead. Under suspicion of murder, Falco must confront his past and uncover his brother's secrets before he can clear his name and solve the mystery. These funny and fast-moving adaptations are a treat for all Falco fans. Cast: Falco...Anton Lesser Helena...Fritha Goodey/Anna Madeley Petronius...Ben Crowe Ma...Frances Jeater Pa...Trevor Peacock Vespasian...Michael Tudor Barnes Titus...Jonathan Keeble Dramatised by Mary Cutler Directed by Peter Leslie Wild Audio updated as of February 2020.
©2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd
Paradise Lost
Summary
"Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe...." So begins the greatest epic poem in the English language. In words remarkable for their richness of rhythm and imagery, Milton tells the story of man's creation, fall, and redemption, "to justify the ways of God to men". Here, unabridged, and told with exceptional sensitivity and power by Anton Lesser, is the plight of Adam and Eve, the ambition and vengefulness of Satan and his cohorts. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2005 Naxos Audiobooks Ltd.