Charles Johnston has narrated 5 audiobooks on Listento.it by 4 authors. The most-rated is After the Storm.
Spirit of the Season
Summary
Narrated by Charles Johnston. Spirit of the Season is the incredible story of one man’s selfless journey to achieve the impossible. Set in the realistic and earthy environment of 18th-century England, Brian Lamont’s startling narrative also refers to some of the darker aspects of the Industrial Revolution and introduces the listener to a host of colorful characters who are brimming with old-world charm. As midwinter approaches, there unfolds a humorous, moving, and powerfully uplifting festive tale - for everyone. Charles Johnston has been an opera singer for over 30 years, working for national companies in the UK and abroad. His repertoire includes many of Verdi and Puccini’s finest baritone roles, but he has worked on productions of operas from the early 17th century to newly composed pieces. He is also a song recitalist, and has made CDs of Schubert’s Winterreise and English Songs by Somervell, Ireland, Vaughan-Williams, and Britten which are now available for streaming. He has just started a Poetry Masters at the Creative Writing Department at UEA. Visit: charlesjohnston.co.uk Audio production by Charles Johnston and Penbury Press in association with Amazon ACX.
©2009 Brian Lamont (P)2020 Brian Lamont
David Hockney: British National Treasure
Summary
An essay by Edward Lucie-Smith on David Hockney's portraits exhibited at the Royal Academy's "82 Portraits and One Still-Life", and also "David Hockney and the Yorkshire Landscape" at RA in 2012. David Hockney has, after a much reported domestic catastrophe in Bridlington - the untimely death of a young member of his entourage - returned to the peace and quiet of California. He nevertheless remains a British national treasure. No other British artist enjoys so much affection - combined with a real, solid, celebrity status - among his compatriots. The huge turnout for the private view of his new exhibition at the R.A. - an institution of which he is of course a member - offered ample proof of that, if any were needed. No hyped-up YBA could have matched it, though Damien Hirst is, one suspects, a considerable richer man, with a wider and hungrier international market. The show was entitled "82 Portraits and One Still-Life". The still-life is there, laid out on blue bench, as a substitute for a sitter who at the last minute couldn’t come on the appointed day. All the sitters occupy the same armchair, placed at exactly the same distance from the artist. They are all seen full length. Sometimes the floor on which their feet rest is blue, while the wall behind them is green. Sometimes it’s the other way round. All were painted on canvases of exactly the same size, in, at most, three sessions. Sometimes only in two. The lighting is the same throughout - clear and shadow-less, though the chair is allowed to cast a small shadow now and then to emphasize its three-dimensionality. Hockney has no interest in the moodiness and mystery of Rembrandtian chiaroscuro. He also seems to have little interest in brushwork as such. There are none of the flickering brushstrokes - the little glittering dabs of paint - you find in high-fashion Edwardian portraits by Sargent and Boldini, to whom Hockney can now, in respect of his position within our society, be compared.
©2014 Cv Publications (P)2021 Cv Publications
Anthony Caro: Steel Eye Span
Summary
An interview with leading British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro (1924-2016) recorded by Nicholas James at his Barford Street sculpture studio Camden Town in 1994, used as a basis for a feature in Art Monthly 1994. Also includes the essay "Caro to Wilding: Shifts in Modern British Sculpture", comparing the work of Caro with Alison Wilding.
©1994, 2020 Nicholas Philip James (P)2021 Cv Publications
Crossing the Line
Summary
Tragic accident or cold-blooded murder? Retired Italian detective, Giuseppe Bianchi, travels to England to escape one tragic death, when he comes face-to-face with another. When the body of a teenager is found on a Sussex beach, Giuseppe is drawn to the case - a case with no witnesses, and a case about which no one is prepared to talk. National news reports of a missing 12-year-old in Manchester spark fear across the nation. The phrase "stranger-danger" filters into public consciousness. Local reporter, Christina Rossi, already has concerns about her local community. Families are not as close-knit as they first appear. As the sea mist drifts in and darkness descends, can Giuseppe and Christina discover the truth and prevent another tragedy? Crossing the Line is the perfect summer listen for everyone who loves Agatha Christie style twists and turns, with a Mediterranean flavor. Imagine the charismatic Italian police series, Montalbano, combined with those TV favorites set in the 1960s - Endeavour, George Gently, and Call the Midwife.
©2020 Isabella Muir (P)2020 Isabella Muir
After the Storm
Summary
When a violent storm blasts England’s south coast, it’s up to retired Italian detective Giuseppe Bianchi to sift through the devastation and piece together the tragic events left behind in the storm’s wake. Giuseppe Bianchi’s brief visit to Bexhill-on-Sea has become an extended stay. He is loath to return to his home in Rome because of the haunting images that made him leave in the first place. During his morning walks along the seafront with Beagle, Max, he meets Edward Swain, who becomes Giuseppe's walking companion. They form a friendship of sorts and find they have a similar outlook on life. But the devastating events of a single night lead Giuseppe to question the truth about Edward Swain. Teaming up with young journalist Christina Rossi - his cousin's daughter - Giuseppe learns about the brutal reality lurking behind the day-to-day life of families in the local community. And as the story unravels Giuseppe is reminded how anger and revenge can lead to the most dreadful of crimes. After the Storm is the second novel in the Giuseppe Bianchi mystery series - the much-awaited sequel to Crossing the Line. Grab your copy today, and enjoy the intrigue of traditional English mystery, cleverly combined with a continental twist. "A riveting mystery, packed with intrigue, atmosphere and vintage charm. Escapism at its purest." (Helen Cox, romance, adventure and escape fiction writer, and author of nonfiction titles, courses, and masterclasses on all aspects of creative writing) "A charming character-driver crime story, full of mystery, intrigue and period detail." (Tom Bromley, author, editor of fiction and nonfiction titles and director of fiction for the Professional Writing Academy, the founding director of the Salisbury Literary Festival) "A dashing Italian detective. A very English mystery. What more could you want?" (Christoffer Petersen, author of Greenland crime novels and Arctic thrillers)
©2020 Isabella Muir (P)2021 Isabella Muir