John Franklyn-Robbins has narrated 5 audiobooks on Listento.it by 6 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 34 ratings. The most-rated is 84, Charing Cross Road.
84, Charing Cross Road
Summary
When Helene Hanff makes an innocent inquiry about the possibility of purchasing hard-to-find books through Marks and Co., Booksellers, she begins a 20-year love affair with Frank Doel, the proper English bookseller who answers her letter and sends along her first order in the fall of 1949. They are two very unlikely correspondents: she a cranky Jewish New Yorker who writes TV scripts and lives in a messy apartment on East 95th Street; he a determinedly courteous middle-class Englishman who sends her beautifully bound and often obscure antiquarian books from the shop he manages on Charing Cross Road in London. The letters, written between 1949 and 1969, capture the period and pay tribute to the special kind of reader who treasures a well-worn classic.
©1970 Helen Hanff (P)1993 Recorded Books, LLC
The Fist of God
Summary
During those fateful weeks before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, a fragment of radio intercept had referred to Qubth-ut-Allah, a devastating secret weapon that could rain death and destruction on the Allied forces. Despite Allied scepticism, Major Mike Martin, an SAS man who can pass as an Arab, is sent into Kuwait to assess Iraqi strength and help the resistance. What he discovers there takes him into the heart of Baghdad, where he is to 'run' the Iraqi spy known as Jericho, the sleeper who might be prepared to provide vital information for money. It is a highly dangerous operation, the results of which cause the Allies to delay their ground assault for four days - while Martin parachutes into the Iraqi mountains on the most hazardous mission of his life: to find and destory Qubth-ut-Allah - the Fist of God.
©2011 Frederick Forsyth (P)2011 Random House Audio Go
The Innocent
Summary
War-weary Berlin has much to offer Leonard Markham, a young, naive postal engineer: first the arts of sophisticated intrigue, then the delights of sexual pleasure. But Leonard's new knowledge carries a heavy price, dragging him and the listener into a new type of story that is exhaustively suspenseful and utterly irresistible.
©1990 Ian McEwan (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC
Howards End
Summary
E.M. Forster's Howards End is a vivid portrait of London's golden age, before World War I forever changed its values and culture. Forster brings the great city's upper classes to life, detailing their grandiose spending habits, popular fads, Monet and Debussy, the rise of feminism, and the beginnings of urbanization. More than a mere idealization of pre-war London, Howards End provides insightful commentary on the rapid societal changes that occurred at the onset of the 20th century. Masterfully blending the stories of three vastly different groups of people - the independently wealthy, educated Schlegels; the nouveau riche Wilcoxes; and the ambitious but struggling Leonard Bast - Forster weaves a wonderfully rich, unforgettably poignant novel.
Public Domain (P)1999 Recorded Books
The War with Hannibal
Summary
Hannibal’s military campaign against Rome inspired its citizens with the same panic that would later terrify Europeans beset by Mongol invaders from the East. A sworn enemy of Rome, Hannibal succeeded as leader of the Carthaginian forces at the age of 26, following the death of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal. On joining his troops, Hannibal launched an attack on the Roman-held city of Saguntum, beginning the Second Punic War and a process that seemed almost predestined as his army swept like a scourge round the Mediterranean shores. Though credit is due to the wisdom of Carthage’s leaders and the loyalty and efficiency of its troops, the larger share must be given to Hannibal, a leader and strategist equal to any the world has known.
Public Domain (P)1993 Recorded Books, LLC