Roger May has narrated 18 audiobooks on Listento.it by 13 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 21 ratings. The most-rated is J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography.
J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography
Summary
The original authorised biography, and the only one written by an author who actually met J. R. R. Tolkien. In the 25 years since Tolkien’s death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books. Born in Bloemfontein in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood, brought up in near poverty and almost thwarted in adolescent romance. He served in the First World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost some of his closest friends, and returned to academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford. Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while marking essay papers he found himself writing 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' - and worldwide renown awaited him. Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien’s papers and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the 20th century's most cherished author.
©2018 Humphrey Carpenter (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
An Instance of the Fingerpost
Summary
Set in Oxford in the 1660s – a time and place of great intellectual, scientific, religious and political ferment – this remarkable novel centres around a young woman, Sarah Blundy, who stands accused of the murder of Robert Grove, a fellow of New College. Four witnesses describe the events surrounding his death: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles 1l a mathematician, theologican and inveterate plotter; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each one tells their version of what happened but only one reveals the extraordinary truth.
©1997 Iain Pears (P)2011 Isis Publishing Ltd
Frankenstein
Summary
Mary Shelley’s poignant exploration of the true depths of human ambition has had a profound effect on readers since its conception in 1816. When scientist Victor Frankenstein forms a creature from the body parts of corpses, thus shattering the perceived limits of scientific understanding, the consequences are devastating. As Frankenstein becomes disgusted with his experiment, he thwarts the creature’s desire for a companion, and what ensues is singularly chilling.
Public Domain (P)2011 Naxos AudioBooks
The Persian Boy
Summary
The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas is sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but finds freedom with Alexander the Great after the Macedon army conquers his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander's mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.
©1972 Mary Renault (P)2014 Audible Studios
Funeral Games
Summary
Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece and Egypt to India. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C. his only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a simpleton half-brother. Every long-simmering faction exploded into the vacuum of power. Wives, distant relatives and generals all vied for the loyalty of the increasingly undisciplined Macedonian army. Most failed and were killed in the attempt. For no one possessed the leadership to keep the great empire from crumbling. But Alexander's legend endured to spread into worlds he had seen only in dreams.
©1981 Mary Renault (P)2014 Audible Studios
Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 3
Summary
A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson’s epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr. Solmes, she refuses, much to her family’s chagrin. She escapes their persecution with the help of Mr. Lovelace, a dashing and seductive rake, but soon finds herself in a far worse dilemma. Terrifying and enlightening, Clarissa weaves a tapestry of narrative experimentation into a gripping morality tale of good versus evil. The recording is divided into three volumes. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2018 Naxos AudioBooks
Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 2
Summary
A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson's epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr. Solmes, she refuses, much to her family's chagrin. She escapes their persecution with the help of Mr. Lovelace, a dashing and seductive rake, but soon finds herself in a far worse dilemma. Terrifying and enlightening, Clarissa weaves a tapestry of narrative experimentation into a gripping morality tale of good versus evil. The recording is divided into three volumes. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2018 Naxos Audiobooks
Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady, Volume 1
Summary
A milestone in the history of the novel, Samuel Richardson’s epistolary and elaborate Clarissa follows the life of a chaste young woman desperate to protect her virtue. When beautiful Clarissa Harlowe is forced to marry the rich but repulsive Mr. Solmes, she refuses, much to her family’s chagrin. She escapes their persecution with the help of Mr. Lovelace, a dashing and seductive rake, but soon finds herself in a far worse dilemma. Terrifying and enlightening, Clarissa weaves a tapestry of narrative experimentation into a gripping morality tale of good versus evil. The recording is divided into three volumes. 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)2018 Naxos AudioBooks
The Art of Captaincy
Summary
Mike Brearley is one of the most successful cricket captains of all time, and in 1981 he captained the England team to the momentous Ashes series victory against Australia. In The Art of Captaincy, his treatise on leadership and motivation, he draws directly on his experience of man-managing a team, which included a pugnacious Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott, to explain what it takes to be a leader on and off the field. Giving an insight into both his tactical understanding of the game as well as how to get a group of individuals playing as a team in order to get the best out of them, The Art of Captaincy is a classic handbook on how to generate, nurture and inspire success. With a new introduction by former England player and BBC commentator Ed Smith to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its first publication, The Art of Captaincy remains urgently relevant for cricket fans and business leaders alike. Covering the ability to use intuition, resourcefulness and clearheadedness and the importance of empathy as a means of achieving shared goals, Brearley's seminal account of captaincy is the ultimate blueprint for creating a winning mind-set but also shows how the lessons in the sporting arena can be applied to any walk of personal or professional life.
©1985 Mike Brearley (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio
Death Toll
Summary
Bodies are being exhumed at King's Lynn's cemetery, the bones moved to higher ground to avoid flooding. But when the coffin of murdered pub landlady Nora Tilden is hauled up into the light there's a grim discovery: the twisted corpse of a young black man, dumped in the grave on the night Nora was buried. Who was this young man? Was he the victim of a racist crime? When DI Peter Shaw, DS George Valentine and their team are put on the case their investigation first leads them to The Flask, Nora's pub, where it's soon clear no one can be trusted. Will Shaw and Valentine be able to get to the truth behind the murder before it’s too late?
©2011 Jim Kelly (P)2011 Isis Publishing Ltd
Death's Door
Summary
On a hot August day in 1994, 76 holidaymakers travel to an island off the North Norfolk coast. Only 75 return alive - a young man is murdered, the case left unsolved. Twenty years later, using state-of-the-art forensics, the DNA results of a blood-soaked towel prompt DI Peter Shaw to summon all 75 original suspects to a mass screening. But one of them, the beautiful Marianne Osbourne, is found dead in her bed. Is there a link to the 1994 murder? DI Shaw and DS Valentine become immersed in the dark secrets of an isolated community.
©2012 Jim Kelly (P)2012 Isis Publishing Ltd
The Elephant Keeper
Summary
In the middle of the 18th century, a ship docks at Bristol with an extraordinary cargo: two young elephants. Bought by a wealthy landowner, they are taken to his estate in the English countryside. A stable boy, Tom Page, is given the task of caring for them. The Elephant Keeper is Tom's account of his life with the elephants.
©2009 Christopher Nicholson (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd
Death Watch
Summary
5 September 1992: Fifteen-year-old Norma Jean Judd disappeared from her home never to be seen again. Exactly 18 years later, Bryan Judd, Norma Jean’s twin, is pulled from the searing heat of a hospital incinerator. When his charred remains are examined, the murder squad confirms that his death was no accident. Could his death be linked to his sister’s disappearance? For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine, the case proves their most intriguing yet. As they begin their investigation into Bryan’s life, they uncover a secret world of criminal activity. Can Shaw and Valentine solve Bryan’s murder before any more lives are violently snatched away? And will they ever learn the truth about what happened to Norma Jean?
©2010 Jim Kelly (P)2010 Isis Publishing Ltd
Haunted Houses: Classic Stories of Doors That Should Never Be Opened
Summary
Classic haunted-house ghost stories curated by world-renowned filmmaker and horror genre authority John Landis. This beautifully presented, highly collectible anthology features ghost stories that have enthralled, terrified, and inspired readers decade after decade. Some are relatively well known; others are long-lost treasures, awaiting rediscovery. The selection includes tales of terror by Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, and Percival Landon; studies of creeping dread by Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James; short, sharp shockers by Ambrose Bierce, M.R. James, and Lafcadio Hearn; and comedic masterpieces by Oscar Wilde and Saki. Mr. Landis' own introduction explores each tale's fascinating impact on the contemporary horror genre. Step inside these ghost-ridden repositories of supernatural evil, if you dare.... "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." (H. P. Lovecraft)
©2020 John Landis (P)2020 DK Audio
Walking in the Woods
Summary
It is clear that our bodies still recognize nature as our home.... 'Forest bathing' or shinrin-yoku is a way of walking in the woods that was developed in Japan in the 1980s. It brings together ancient ways and wisdom with cutting-edge environmental health science. Simply put, forest bathing is the practice of walking slowly through the woods, in no hurry, for a morning, an afternoon or a day. It is a practice that involves all the senses and as you gently walk and breathe deeply, the essential oils of the trees are absorbed by your body and have an extraordinary effect on positive feelings, stress hormone levels, parasympathetic nervous activity, sympathetic nervous activity, blood pressure, heart rate and brain activity. In this wonderful book, by the leading expert in the field, science meets nature, as we are encouraged to bathe in the trees and become observers of both the environment around us and the goings on of our own minds.
©2018 Yoshifumi Miyazaki (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group
Isabel's Skin
Summary
David Morris lives the quiet life of a book-valuer for a London auction house, travelling every day by omnibus to his office in the Strand. When he is asked to make a trip to rural Somerset to value the library of the recently deceased Lord Buff-Orpington, the sense of trepidation he feels as he heads into the country is confirmed the moment he reaches his destination, the dark and impoverished village of Ashbrittle. These feelings turn to dread when he meets the enigmatic Professor Richard Hunt and catches a glimpse of a screaming woman he keeps prisoner in his house. Peter Benson’s novel is a slick Gothic tale in the English tradition, a murder mystery, a reflection on the works of the masters of the French Enlightenment and a tour of Edwardian England. More than this, it is a work of atmosphere and unease which creates a world of inhuman anxiety and suspense.
©2012 Peter Benson (P)2012 Audible Ltd
Vintage 1954
Summary
When Hubert Larnaudie invites some fellow residents of his Parisian apartment building to drink an exceptional bottle of 1954 Beaujolais, he has no idea of its special properties. The following morning, Hubert finds himself waking up in 1950s Paris, as do antique restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien, and Airbnb tenant Bob from Milwaukee, who's on his first trip to Europe. After their initial shock, the city of Edith Piaf and An American in Paris begins to work its charm on them. The four delight in getting to know the French capital during this iconic period whilst also playing with the possibilities that time travel allows. But, ultimately, they need to work out how to get back to 2017, and time is of the essence....
©2019 Antoine Laurain (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
Wiser
Summary
What exactly does it mean to be 'wise'? And is it possible to grow and even accelerate its unfolding? For over two decades, Dr Dilip Jeste has led the search for the biological and cognitive roots of wisdom. What's emerged from his work is that wisdom is a very real and deeply multilayered set of traits. Across many cultures and centuries, he's found that wise people are compassionate and empathetic, aware of their gifts and blind spots, open-minded, resolute and calm amid uncertainty, altruistic decision-makers who learn from their experiences, able to see from many perspectives and 'altitudes' and often blessed with a sense of adventure and humour. 'The modern rise in suicides, opioid abuse, loneliness and internet addiction is damaging people’s health and destroying the social fabric,' Dr Jeste reflects. But we all have the ability to nurture and grow every facet of wisdom to face these challenges and others more effectively. If you seek to be a wiser person - with your family, at work and in your community - this audiobook will show you how, with the researcher who's launched and advanced this exciting new path to our highest human potential.
©2020 Dilip Jeste (P)2021 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd