Martin Jarvis has narrated 57 audiobooks on Listento.it by 47 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 2,477 ratings. The most-rated is Good Omens.
Good Omens
Summary
The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist. Put New York Times best-selling authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett together...and all Hell breaks loose.
©1990 Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers
Lord of the Flies
Summary
Skilfully exploring the tension between individuality and conformity, the desire for civilisation versus the lust for power, it is unsurprising that William Golding's debut novel went on to become such a triumph. A plane crashes on a desert island, and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assembles on the beach and waits to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys’ delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.
©1954 William Golding (P)2012 Faber Audio
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 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Summary
This is the disturbing tale of the dual personality of Dr. Jekyll, a physician. A generous and philanthropic man, he is preoccupied with the problems of good and evil, and with the possibility of separating them into distinct personalities. He develops a drug that transforms him into the demonic Mr. Hyde, in whose person he exhausts all the latent evil in his nature. He also creates an antidote that will restore him to his respectable existence as Dr. Jekyll. Gradually, however, the unmitigated evil of his darker self predominates until finally he performs an atrocious murder. His saner self determines to curtail these alternations of personality, but he discovers that he is losing control over his transformations and that he slips with increasing frequency into the world of evil. Finally, unable to procure one of the ingredients for the mixture of redemption, and on the verge of being discovered, he commits suicide. Stark, skillfully woven, this fascinating novel explores the curious turnings of human character through the strange case of Dr. Jekyll, a kindly scientist who by night takes on his stunted, evil self, Mr. Hyde. Anticipating modern psychology, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a brilliantly original study of man's dual nature as well as an immortal tale of suspense and terror. This tale has lost none of its ability to shock. Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly relates Dr. Jekyll’s desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul - and gives voice to our own fears of the violence and evil within us.
Public Domain (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Good Liar
Summary
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle, read by Martin Jarvis. This is a life told back to front. This is a man who has lied all his life. Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con, and what has he had to do to survive this life of lies? And why is this beautiful woman so willing to be his next victim?
©2016 Nicholas Searle (P)2016 Penguin Books
Goodbye to All That
Summary
A famous autobiographical account of life as a young soldier in the first World War trenches. Robert Graves, who went on to write I, Claudius, has given to posterity here one of the all-time great insights into the experience of war.
©2007 CSA Telltapes Ltd. (P)2007 CSA Telltapes Ltd.
The Code of the Woosters
Summary
Abridged novel depicting the sinister affair of the 18th century cow-creamer and the small, brown, leather-covered notebook tests the Wooster soul as it has never been tested before. Friends and relations, in urgent need, queue up to beg for assistance in a variety of troublesome situations, and ruthless enemies stop at nothing in their determination to bring Bertie down.
©2011 CSA Word (P)2011 CSA Word
Oliver Twist
Summary
A workhouse orphan, Oliver experiences the terror and brutality of the criminal underworld. His companions, a thief, a whore, a pickpocket, and a fence, are destined for gruesome ends, but Oliver emerges unscathed from the darkness of the underworld.
(P) 2014 Audible, Inc.
A Night to Remember
Summary
One hundred years ago, the mightiest "unsinkable" ship began her maiden voyage to cross the Atlantic. An engineering feat 11 stories high, the Titanic contained a list of passengers collectively worth $250 million when she left port on April 10, 1912, but she would never reach her destination. The Titanic collided with an iceberg on the night of April 14, and 1,500 people died in the freezing waters as the ship met her watery grave. Spectacular in many ways, it's a story that has spurred legends and still sends shivers down the spine a century later. This minute-by-minute account of the sinking is based on over 20 years of research and offers amazing detail of that fateful night. Read by Martin Jarvis, it's a riveting account of one of the world's biggest maritime disasters and the behavior of the passengers and crew. Some sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in full evening dress; and hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped below decks, sought help in vain. From the initial distress flares to the struggles of those left adrift for hours in freezing waters, this audiobook brings that moonlit night in 1912 to life for a new generation of listeners.
©1955 Walter Lord. All rights reserved. (P)2015 AudioGO
The Oscar Wilde BBC Radio Drama Collection
Summary
A sparkling collection of the major works of the ever-adored Oscar Wilde, with incredible casts including Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, Michael Sheen, Miriam Margolyes, Ian McDiarmid, Joely Richardson, Penelope Keith, Martin Jarvis, Diana Rigg, Simon Russell Beale, Sheila Hancock, Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry.
This collection includes:
The Picture of Dorian Gray: a dramatisation of Wilde’s sole novel, about the unsettling youth of Dorian Gray and the ravaged picture in his attic. Starring Jamie Glover, Ian McDiarmid, Steven Pacey.
Lady Windermere’s Fan: a comic play about a woman who suspects her husband is having an affair. Starring Joely Richardson and Penelope Keith.
A Woman of No Importance: a devastating drawing room comedy about the rakish Lord Illingworth, notorious for his skill as a seducer while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. Starring Martin Jarvis, Diana Rigg and Annette Crosby.
The Importance of Being Earnest: a dazzling comedy about mistaken identities and secret engagements. Starring Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, Michael Sheen and Miriam Margolyes.
An Ideal Husband: a play about the plight of a politician desperate to hide a secret about his past. Starring Noel Johnson, Ronald Lewis and Jane Wenham.
Plus bonus programmes featuring Wilde’s letters and poetry:
De Profundis: Simon Russell Beale reads correspondence from Oscar Wilde to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, while in Reading Gaol in 1897.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol: a live benefit performance of Oscar Wilde's celebrated poem, read by Ian McKellen, Neil Tennant, Stephen Fry, Bette Bourne, Tom Wakefield and Malcolm Sinclair.
In Extremis by Neil Bartlett: a play that reimagines Wilde’s hastily arranged sitting with a society palm reader, a week before the trial that was to cost him so much. Starring Corin Redgrave and Sheila Hancock.
©2019 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2019 BBC Worldwide Ltd
Crossfire
Summary
Captain Thomas Forsyth’s second tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he’s badly wounded by a roadside bomb. Tom’s world is torn apart by the injury – the Army is his life. The thought of never rejoining his regiment is a terrifying prospect and one that he is not willing to entertain. Tom returns to Lambourn, to his childhood home, where his mother is a racehorse trainer and the ‘First Lady’ of racing. Never having seen eye to eye with his parents, Tom doesn’t expect a hero’s welcome – but even he’s not prepared for the reception that awaits him. When his mother’s prize horse finishes a disappointing last place in a race he should have won, Tom discovers that the training business is on the edge, and facing a threat far more dangerous than a run of bad form. Tom finds himself on a very different, but just as deadly, battlefield where his military skills are tested ... kill or be killed?
©2010 Dick Francis (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.
You Only Live Twice
Summary
James Bond seems unable to function after the death of his wife. Determined to restore 007 to the effective agent he used to be, M sends him on a mission to Japan, to the mysterious "Castle of Death", and into the lair of an old and terrifying enemy. For Bond and Blofeld, this will be their final encounter. Only one of them can survive. This audiobook includes a bonus interview with Martin Jarvis. Blackstone Audio, Inc. James Bond and 007 are registered trademarks of Danjaq LLC, used under license by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd
©1964 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
A Tale of Two Cities
Summary
Exclusively from Audible 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'; so the recording begins and ends with some of Dickens's best-known words, and between those lines is every Briton's view of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, the audiobook tells the story of a French doctor who is imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille in Paris. Upon his release, he moves to London with his daughter, Lucie, whom he had never met. She marries but there is conflict between her husband and the people who decades earlier caused her father's imprisonment. Set against the backdrop of the conditions that led up to the French Revolution, it depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralised by the French aristocracy and the brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror, towards the former aristocrats. Dickens was one of eight children from a very poor family, with his father eventually being sent to debtor's prison. Dickens began work at the age of 12 to help clear the family debt. It was this troublesome childhood that provided him with much of the material for his novels and lent him a sympathetic voice for the poor. Narrator Biography Martin Jarvis is one of Britain's most admired actors. His audiobook output is legendary. He is described in Vanity Fair as 'the Olivier of audiobooks' and 'genius of the Spoken Word' in the LA Times. Award-winning recordings range from titles by Charles Dickens, P.G. Wodehouse and Michael Frayn to thrillers by Jeffrey Archer, Wilbur Smith, Ian Fleming and Dick Francis. Martin's BBC Just William recordings are worldwide best sellers. He has starred in many acclaimed West End and National Theatre productions and received the Theatre World Award as Jeeves on Broadway. Numerous UK television appearances encompass Law & Order, Doctor Who, Endeavour, Inspector Morse and The Forsyte Saga. In America: Murder She Wrote, Numb3rs, Cosmos and Walker, Texas Ranger. Films include Titanic, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Wreck-It Ralph. Videogames: 'Alfred' in Batman, 'Finn McMissile' in Cars. Martin is invested by HM the Queen as Officer of Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Guilty Not Guilty
Summary
Guilty Not Guilty is a journey of greed and jealousy set against the grief of personal tragedy and loss, with many a twist and turn along the way. 'It is said that everyone over a certain age can remember distinctly what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated, or that Princess Diana had been killed in a Paris car crash, but I, for one, could recall all too clearly where I was standing when a policeman told me that my wife had been murdered.' Bill Russell is acting as a volunteer steward at Warwick races when he confronts his worst nightmare - the violent death of his much-loved wife. But worse is to come when he is accused of killing her and hounded mercilessly by the media. His life begins to unravel completely as he loses his job and his home. Even his best friends turn against him, believing him guilty of the heinous crime in spite of the lack of compelling evidence. Bill sets out to clear his name but finds that proving one’s innocence is not easy - one has to find the true culprit, and Bill believes he knows who it is. But can he prove it before he becomes another victim of the murderer?
©2019 Felix Francis (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
Metamorphoses
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy. Erudite but light-hearted, dramatic yet playful, the Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists throughout the centuries from Shakespeare and Titian to Picasso and Ted Hughes.
©2004 David Raeburn (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Crisis
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Felix Francis returns with his newest edge-of-your-seat horse racing thriller in the Dick Francis tradition. Harrison Foster is a lawyer by training but works as a crisis manager for a London firm that specialises in such matters. Summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick Stables slaughters six very valuable horses, including the short-priced favourite for the Derby, Harry (as he is known) finds there is far more to the ‘simple’ fire than initially meets the eye. For a start, human remains are found amongst the equestrian ones in the burnt-out shell. All the stable staff are accounted for, so who is the mystery victim? Harry knows very little about horses, indeed he positively dislikes them, but he is thrust unwillingly into the world of Thoroughbred racing, where the standard of care of the equine stars is far higher than that of the humans who attend to them. The Chadwick family are a dysfunctional racing dynasty, with the emphasis being on the nasty. Resentment between the generations is rife, and sibling rivalry bubbles away like volcanic magma beneath a thin crust of respectability. Harry represents the Middle Eastern owner of the Derby favourite, and, as he delves deeper into the unanswered questions surrounding the horse’s demise, he ignites a fuse that blows the volcano sky-high, putting him in grave jeopardy. Can Harry solve the riddle before he is overcome by the toxic emissions from the eruption and is bumped off by the fallout?
©2018 Felix Francis (P)2018 Recorded Books
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
Summary
Here is one of the greatest English comic novels read by incontrovertible king of English comic audiobook readers, Martin Jarvis. Three men, worried about their health and in search of different experiences, set off 'up the river' in a boat. Jerome's delightful novel, dating from 1900, paints a vivid picture of innocent fun. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
The 101 Dalmatians
Summary
Puppies and more puppies! How will they escape the evil Cruella de Vil? When the Dearly's Dalmatians have their first litter of puppies (fifteen in all) everyone is delighted. But their joy is shattered when the pups are kidnapped! The humans don't have a clue as to who the culprit is, but the smartest dogs in London are on the case, and on the trail of fur-loving Cruella de Vil, who will stop at nothing to have a Dalmatian fur coat!
©1956, 1984 Dodie Smith (P)2002 Random House, Inc. and CSA Telltapes Ltd., Listening Library, An Imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group
Very Good Jeeves, Volume 1
Summary
Jeeves and Wooster never disappoint on audio and these unabridged stories are of course no exception. Wodehouse/Jarvis deliver another excellent audio collection featuring all your favourite characters, not forgetting our intrepid duo of course! Full Story Listings: 1. Jeeves and the Impending Doom 2. The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy 3. Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit 4. Jeeves and the Song of Songs 5. Episode of the Dog McIntosh6. The Spot of Art
©2010 CSA Word (P)2011 CSA Word
Goodbye, Mr Chips
Summary
Mr Chipping, classics master at Brookfield school since 1870 - an old man - is reflecting upon his life in education. This cleverly and touchingly woven story intertwines a heart-wrenching and joyful romance with Mr Chipping's life as a teacher and the highs and lows that he has experienced in that capacity. Martin Jarvis is the perfect reader, as his lilting and soothing voice carries listeners along on a swell of nostalgia, leaving them wishing that they could have been there to celebrate all of Mr Chipping's happiness with him.
©1997 CSA Word (P)2006 CSA Word