Stewart Crank has narrated 28 audiobooks on Listento.it by 18 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 4 ratings. The most-rated is One Day as a Tiger.
The Shining Mountain
Summary
"It’s a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it’ll be the hardest thing that’s been done in the Himalayas." Thus spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unscaled West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington’s was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition. This was, after all, perhaps the most fearsome and technically challenging granite wall in the Garhwal Himalaya, and an ascent - particularly one in a lightweight style - would be more significant than anything done on the Everest at the time. The idea had been Joe Tasker’s. He had photographed the sheer, shining white granite sweep of Changabang’s west wall on a previous expedition and asked Pete to return with him the following year. Tasker contributes a second voice throughout Boardman’s story, which starts with acclimatization, sleeping in a Salford frozen food store, and progresses through three nights of hell, marooned in hammocks during a storm, to moments of exultation at the variety and intricacy of the superb, if punishingly difficult, climbing. It is a story of how climbing a mountain can become an all-consuming goal, of the tensions inevitable in 40 days of isolation on a two-man expedition, as well as a record of the moment of joy upon reaching the summit ridge against all odds. First published in 1978, The Shining Mountain is Peter Boardman’s first book. It is a very personal and honest story that is also amusing, lucidly descriptive, very exciting, and never anything but immensely listenable. It was awarded the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize for literature in 1979, winning wide acclaim. His second book Sacred Summits was published shortly after his death in 1982.
©1978 Peter Boardman (P)2020 Vertebrate Digital
Killer Storm
Summary
Killer Storm: the third and final book in the Everest Files trilogy by Matt Dickinson. Teenage climber Ryan Hart is still in Nepal, working at a refugee center with his Tibetan girlfriend, Tashi. His obsession with summiting Mount Everest is as strong as ever, but a climbing accident puts his plans on hold. As soon as Ryan recovers, he and Tashi journey deep into the Himalayas. Old friends have come back into their lives and invited them on the adventure. On the way they discover disturbing news: Nepal's summer rains have failed, and the country is in chaos. There are riots in the cities. Bandits roam the hills. As they arrive at Base Camp, a violent terrorist attack kicks off. Ryan and his friends are held hostage. Escape is their only option, but all the trails are guarded. They must head for Everest's deadly slopes. The friends battle against the elements to keep one step ahead of the terror leader as the chase intensifies.... Storm clouds gather high on the mountain. The scene is set for the ultimate Everest adventure.
©2017 Matt Dickinson (P)2019 Vertebrate Publishing
The Everest Files
Summary
Short-listed for the Trinity Schools Book Award 2016. Nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2015. A thrilling journey to the dark side of Everest. In the deepest Himalaya, a story is spreading like wildfire. The story of an Everest expedition unlike any other. An expedition that ended with mysterious disappearances...and death. This is the mystery that 18-year-old Ryan Hart sets out to solve. Ryan is on a gap year adventure, working for a medical charity in Nepal. When a local girl begs him to investigate why her 16-year-old friend Kami never came back from Everest, Ryan cannot resist the challenge. A solo journey takes Ryan deep into the mountains, where his detective work finally pays off. What emerges is a shocking tale of lies, betrayal, and obsession. All played out on the lethal slopes of the highest mountain in the world. Little by little, Ryan is falling under Everest’s deadly spell.
©2014 Matt Dickinson (P)2018 Vertebrate Publishing
North Face
Summary
Ryan Hart is an 18-year-old adventurer on a mission. To get himself to Mount Everest and check out the truth about the world's highest peak. Friends have told him dark stories about the mountain, outrageous things that he wants to see for himself. Just a few hours after Ryan arrives at Everest Base Camp a lethal earthquake strikes. Avalanches pound the glacier, burying Ryan's climbing buddy and killing many others. A desperate rescue saves Ryan's friend, but only after a local Tibetan girl -Tashi - helps with the search. Stress levels are running high among the climbing teams. The mountain is shut for the season because it is judged too dangerous. Then a flashlight reveals a clue. Someone is alive, high on Everest's treacherous north face! Tashi is convinced it is her 15-year-old brother. Ryan is prepared to risk everything to help. Storm clouds gather as they set out on their illegal climb, a do-or-die mission which the local militia will do anything to stop.
©2016 Matt Dickinson (P)2019 Matt Dickinson
The Ultimate James Joyce Collection: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners
Summary
The Ultimate James Joyce Collection comprises his works Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories first published in 1914. In Dubliners, 15 pictures of Irish middle-class life in and around Dublin in the early 20th century reveal the soul of the nation when the country was in search of a national identity and purpose. An oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was Joyce’s first novel. It depicts the awakening of Stephen Dedalus, who questions the Catholic and Irish conventions under which he has grown up. It is considered a masterpiece of modernist literature, Ulysses was published in 1922. Loosely based on the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey, it chronicles a day in the life of Leopold Bloom and his friends, Buck Mulligan, Stephen Dedalus, Molly Bloom, and others. Joyce uses stream-of-consciousness, earthy humor, puns, parodies, and allusions, while the narrative reflects various different styles of English literature.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales
Summary
George Brisbane Scott Douglas (1856-1935), the Scottish poet and writer, published the book Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales in 1901. The literary genres of the book include comic, literary, nursery, and animal stories plus fairy tales of mythic creatures like the brownies, bogles, kelpies, and mermaids. Classified, tabulated, and scientifically labelled, these imaginative narratives are related in vernacular language, and have a timeless appeal to adults and children alike. Amongst the most popular stories are "The Fox’s Stratagem", "The Bee and the Mouse", "The Farmer's Wife of Deloraine", "The Witches of Delnabo", and "The Brazen Brogues".
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
The Doors of Perception
Summary
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) was an English writer and philosopher who wrote nearly 50 books, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. The Doors of Perception (1954) which takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's poem "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", describes the author’s experiences with peyote and mescaline in 1953. Huxley discusses the insights he gained, that ranged form the purely aesthetic to the spiritual vision, and relates them to philosophy, art, science and religion. He believed that the mystical experience attained through psychedelics is valuable as it gives the experiencers a better understanding of themselves and the world and because it may help them to lead a more creative life.
Public Domain (P)2021 Museum Audiobooks
They Don't Know
Summary
Daisy meets Adam on their first day of university. Immediately, they become friends. But when tongues wag and their relationship is questioned, Adam shares his secret with Daisy, who promises to stand by him. When their grandmother dies, Adam’s older brother Ryan returns from abroad, and Daisy quickly falls for him. After a troubled upbringing at the hands of a drunken mother and jailbird father, Adam and Ryan have only each other. In adulthood, their bond holds firm, glued together by Daisy, with whom they are now both in love. Adam struggles with his secret and the fear of losing Daisy. He is besotted.... Soon, the past starts to influence his choices. Ryan sees everything in black and white, living in a military world that shields him from the demons of his past, bringing order to his life. And in the middle is Daisy, who loves them both and makes a promise to each. When tragedy strikes, can she find happiness?
©2018 Patricia Dixon (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd