Tim Pigott-Smith has narrated 18 audiobooks on Listento.it by 26 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 65 ratings. The most-rated is Vagabond.
Vagabond
Summary
1347 is a year of war and unrest. England's army is fighting in France, encouraging the Scots to invade their old enemy. Thomas of Hookton, sent back to England to follow an ancient trail which suggests his family once owned the Holy Grail, instead becomes embroiled in the savage fight when the Scots come to Durham. Out of the horror he finds a new companion for the quest, but also discovers a new enemy in a Dominican Inquisitor. All of Europe wants the grail. Many may doubt it exists, but no one would willingly allow an enemy to find Christendom's most precious relic, and Thomas finds himself in a murderous race with the Inquisitor and with Guy de Vexille, the mysterious black rider who murdered Thomas' father. Thomas' father bequeathed him a mysterious notebook which confirms the grail's existence and offers clues to where it might be hidden. But his rivals have the advantage of the torture chamber of the Inquisition. Thomas, seeking help to decipher the book's cryptic pages, is delivered instead to his worst enemies. He finds refuge in Brittany with the Countess of Armorica, but fate will not let him rest. He is thrust into one of the most desperate fights of the Hundred Years' War, the battle of la Roche-Derrien, and amidst the flames, arrows, and butchery of that night he faces his enemies again.
©2002 Bernard Cornwell (P)2002 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Travels with My Aunt
Summary
Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over 50 years at his mother’s funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon South wood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay... Accompanying his aunt, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals and CIA men, as well as smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban life.
©1969 Graham Greene (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Jung
Summary
Anthony Stevens argues that Jung's visionary powers and profound spirituality have helped many to find an alternative set of values to the arid materialism prevailing Western society. This concise introduction explains clearly the basic concepts of Jungian psychology: The collective unconscious, complex, archetype, shadow, persona, anima, animus, and the individuation of the Self. Anthony Stevens examines Jung's views on such disparate subjects as myth, religion, alchemy, "synchronicity", and the psychology of gender differences. He devotes separate chapters to the stages of life, Jung's theory of psychological types, the interpretation of dreams, the practice of Jungian analysis, and to the unjust allegation that Jung was a Nazi sympathiser. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2003 Anthony Stevens (P)2003 Naxos AudioBooks Ltd.
Endurance
Summary
The year was 1915. Equipment and food supplies were totally inadequate. After battling its way for six weeks through thousands of miles of pack ice and located only a day's sail from its destination, the Endurance became locked inside an island of ice. Yet Ernest Shackleton enabled all 27 of his men to survive for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas - leadership without equal. This gripping account is based on contemporaneous diaries and interviews conducted by the author with these exceptional men.
©1959 Alfred Lansing (P)2000 by The Audio Partners Publishing Corp.
The Barchester Chronicles
Summary
Six lavish BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations of Anthony Trollope's much-loved novels. Anthony Trollope’s series of witty and gently satirical stories of provincial life are set in the fictional town of Barchester and its surrounding county of Barsetshire. The canvas is broad and colourful, with a set of iconic characters in whose lives we become intimately involved as they grow up, grow old, and fall in or out of love and friendship, across the years. 'The Warden': The gentle Mr Harding finds his peaceful life disrupted, when his would-be son-in-law calls into question the large income he receives as warden of Barchester alms house. 'Barchester Towers': The cathedral town is changing again, with the arrival of a new Bishop, his wife and his Chaplain from London throwing all Barchester into disarray. 'Dr Thorne': When young heir Frank Gresham expresses his desire to marry Mary, her uncle Dr Thorne realises that a secret he has concealed for so long can no longer stay secret. 'Framley Parsonage': Mark Robarts, the young vicar of Framley, cannot resist the lure of celebrity beyond his own village. But his ambitious pursuits will lead him to risk his devoted wife and children, as well as his sister's happiness. 'The Small House at Allington': The Arrival of the handsome Adolphus Crosbie causes quite a stir at Allington. There is concern for Lily Dale in her fight against scarlet fever, and Dr Crofts is a frequent visitor to the Small House. 'The Last Chronicle of Barset': Henry Grantley has fallen in love again, Lily's past returns to haunt her, and Mr Crawley must reckon with an angry butcher. Johnny traverses Europe trying to save Mr Crawley, and meets an unexpected new friend. Audio has been updated as of September 2018.
©2017 Anthony Trollope (P)2017 BBC Worldwide Ltd.
Crown and Country
Summary
From one of our finest historians comes an outstanding exploration of the British monarchy from the retreat of the Romans up until the modern day.
The monarchy is one of Britain’s longest surviving institutions – as well as one of its most tumultuous and revered. In this masterful book, David Starkey looks at the monarchy as a whole, charting its history from Roman times, to the Wars of the Roses, the chaos of the Civil War, the fall of Charles I and Cromwell's emergence as Lord Protector – all the way up until the Victorian era when Britain’s monarchs came face-to-face with modernity.
This brilliant collection of biographies of Britain’s kings and queens provides an in-depth examination of what the British monarchy has meant, what it means now and what it will continue to mean. Bringing to life a cast of colourful characters, Starkey’s trademark energy and authority make him the perfect guide on this epic, accessible and compelling journey, as he offers us a vivid portrait of British culture, politics and nationhood through an institution that has defined the realm for nearly two thousand years.
©2010 David Starkey (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
The Brothers Karamazov
Summary
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic among the world's great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2004 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2004 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Behind Closed Doors
Summary
Ten years ago, 15-year-old Scarlett Rainsford vanished while on a family holiday in Greece. Lou Smith worked the case as a police constable, and failing to find Scarlett has been one of the biggest regrets of her career. No one is more shocked than Lou to learn that Scarlett has unexpectedly been found during a Special Branch raid of a brothel in Briarstone. Lou and her Major Crime team are already stretched working two troubling cases: 19-year-old Ian Palmer was found badly beaten; and soon after, bar owner Carl McVey was found half-buried in the woods. While Lou tries to establish the links between the two cases, DS Sam Hollands works with Special Branch to question Scarlett. What happened to her? Where has she been until now? How did she end up back here? And why is her family - with the exception of her emotionally fragile younger sister, Juliette - less than enthusiastic about her return? When another brutal assault and homicide are linked to the McVey murder, Lou's cases collide, and the clues all point in one terrifying direction. As the pressure and the danger mount, it becomes clear that the silent, secretive Scarlett holds the key to everything. Contains mature themes.
©2015 Elizabeth Haynes (P)2020 Tantor
The Rivals: Tales of Sherlock Holmes' Rival Detectives (Dramatisation)
Summary
Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard introduces 12 dramatised stories, featuring detectives whose abilities rival that of the great Sherlock Holmes.
Dramatised for radio by Chris Harrald, these 12 stories are written by masters of the crime and thriller genre, all contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle.
They include:
The Murders on the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
The Problem of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle
Murder By Proxy by Matthias McDonnel Bodkin
Mystery of Redstone Manor by Catherine Lousia Pirkis
The Problem of the Superfluous Finger by Jacques Futrelle
The Clue of the Silver Spoons by Robert Barr
The Intangible Clue by Anna Katherine Green
The Game Played in the Dark by Ernest Bramah
©2015 BBC Worldwide (P)2015 BBC Worldwide
White Gold
Summary
In the summer of 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and 52 of his comrades were captured at sea by the Barbary corsairs. Their captors, fanatical Islamic slave traders, had declared war on the whole of Christendom. Thousands of Europeans had been snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Sale in Morocco to be sold to the highest bidder. White Gold is an extraordinary and shocking story. Drawn from unpublished letters and manuscripts written by slaves, and by the padres and ambassadors sent to free them, it reveals a disturbing and forgotten chapter of history, told with all the pace and verve of one of our finest historians.
©2004 Giles Milton (P)2005 Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks
The Monarchy of England
Summary
This is the first of three volumes, which, taken together under the over-arching title of Monarchy, will form a new, ground-breaking history of England as told through the lives of its Kings and Queens. Volume one is an in-depth examination of how the English monarchy came into being, and how England became a nation state. It begins with Rome, the 'fount' from which all modern western European countries spring. The importance of the contrasting cultural and intellectual heritage of the Anglo-Saxons is underlined. Wessex, round which England coalesced in the ninth and tenth centuries, was a participatory society which balanced an effective monarchy at the centre with institutions of local governement which required - and got - the active involvement of most free men. It was this combination which enabled Wessex to survive and absorb the Viking invasions, and finally to thrive. Then came the crisis of the Norman invasion when, as one contemporary put it, 'God ordered that the English should cease to be people'. But - as David Starkey demonstrates - the English proved resilient, and within forty years of the battle of Hastings had conquered Normandy. The values and practices of Anglo-Saxon politics had triumphed and the English nation state had been reborn. This is popular history of the most exciting and challenging kind.
©2004 David Starkey (P)2004 Harper Collins UK
A Good Year
Summary
Max Skinner is a man at the heart of London's financial universe until his employers embark on a little asset-stripping of their own. Himself. Amid the grey London drizzle, there is one potential ray of sunshine: Max's Uncle Harry has left him his estate in his will, an eighteenth-century chateau and vineyard an hour's drive from Avignon. Out of a job, and encouraged by his friend Charlie about the money in modern wine, he heads for France. What Max discovers is a beautiful house, wonderful weather, and a bustling village. The downside is the quality of the wine in his vineyard; but when Max suggests calling in an expert, Roussel, a former employee of his uncle's, is resistant. Help is at hand, however, when a beautiful blonde Californian arrives unexpectedly at the chateau. A Good Year won a Gold Spoken Word Award in 2004 in the Unabridged Contemporary Fiction category.
©2004 Escargot Productions (P)2004 Time Warner AudioBooks
Seven Years in Tibet
Summary
In 1943, Heinrich Harrer, a youthful Austrian adventurer, mountaineer, and skier, escaped from a British internment camp in India and traveled through the rugged Himalayas seeking refuge from the war. He ended up in the Forbidden City of Lhasa in Tibet, with no money or permission to be in the country. However, his curious appearance and the traditional hospitality of Tibetan society soon worked in Harrer's favor, allowing him unprecedented acceptance among the upper class. His intelligence and his European ways also intrigued the curious young Dalai Lama, and Harrer became his tutor and trusted confidant. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, Harrer and the Dalai Lama fled the country together.
©1952, 1997 Heinrich Harrer; 1953 Rupert Hard Davis (P)1997 HarperCollins Publishers, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.
Last of the Few
Summary
After the fall of France in May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. Britain now stood alone to face Hitler’s inevitable invasion attempt. For the German Army to be landed across the Channel, Hitler needed mastery of the skies – the RAF would have to be broken – so every day, throughout the summer, German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day, and civilians watched skies criss-crossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires and Me-109s. Britain’s very freedom depended on the outcome of that summer’s battle. Britain’s air defences were badly battered and nearly broken, but against all odds, ‘The Few’, as they came to be known, bought Britain’s freedom – many with their lives. These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought and survived that battle. We will not see their like again.
©2010 Max Arthur (P)2010 Random House Audiobooks
Doctor Who: The History Collection
Summary
Five classic novelisations of TV adventures set in Earth’s history.
In Doctor Who: The Aztecs, the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan materialise in Mexico during the bloodthirsty Aztec civilisation.
In Doctor Who and the Crusaders the First Doctor and his friends are embroiled in the 12th-century conflict between Richard the Lionheart and the Sultan Saladin.
In Doctor Who: The Myth Makers, the First Doctor, Steven and Vicki arrive on the plains of Ursa Minor, in the middle of the Greek and Trojan battlefields.
In Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah fight swords, sorcery and an alien influence in 15th-century Italy.
In Doctor Who and the Visitation, the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa materialise in 17th-century London and find themselves playing a key role in gruesome historical events....
Read by William Russell, Stephen Thorne, Tim Pigott-Smith and Matthew Waterhouse. Each purchase is accompanied by a PDF booklet featuring full cast and credits, chapter-by-chapter navigation, and sleeve notes for each book by David J. Howe.
Sound design by Simon Power
TARDIS sound effect by Brian Hodgson
Executive producer: Michael Stevens
Cover illustration by Andrew Skilleter
BBC logo © BBC 1996
Doctor Who logo © BBC 2014
A stereo recording
MCPS
Digital Edition Chapter Listing
Doctor Who: The Aztecs
Files 1-15
Doctor Who and the Crusaders
Files 16-25
Doctor Who: The Myth Makers
Files 26-53
Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
Files 54-65
Doctor Who and the Visitation
Files 66-76
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.
©2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd
The Canterbury Tales III
Summary
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of 30 people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host - Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935). This is an ideal way to appreciate the genuinely funny and droll talent of England’s early master storyteller. Seven leading British actors bring the medieval world into the 21st century, and at least in terms of character, not much seems to have changed! 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)2004 Naxos AudioBooks
George Orwell: A BBC Radio Collection
Summary
A radio anthology of George Orwell's finest novels, memoirs and essays, plus four biographical dramas and a bonus documentary, The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four. Visionary author and journalist George Orwell was the man behind two of the best loved and most influential novels of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. This collection celebrating his life and work features dramatisations of both these classic books, with stellar casts including Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tamsin Greig and Nicky Henson. Also included is a drama based on his autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, starring Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal. Four biographical radio plays by Mike Walker and Jonathan Holloway - Burma, Dreaming, Loving and Jura - explore further episodes in Orwell's fascinating life, showing the disconnection between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. Timeless examples of his essays and journalism are showcased here, including 'A Hanging', 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', 'My Country Right or Left', 'Pleasure Spots' and 'As I Please' (all read by Clive Merrison), while Joseph Millson narrates Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell's vivid memoir of his time living among the poor in Europe's two great cities. Finally, in The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four, David Aaronovitch examines what led avowed socialist George Orwell to write a book beloved of the Right, revealing how the novel grew from a forgotten political world shaped by the atom bomb. George Orwell worked for BBC Radio from August 1941 to November 1943, and even went on air himself. Sadly, none of the programmes in which he took part survive - in those days, radio was essentially a live medium and broadcasts were not recorded for posterity. But Orwell's connection to the BBC remains a fascinating part of its wartime history.
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Classic BBC Radio Shakespeare: Romances
Summary
Three classic radio productions from the BBC archives starring Hannah Gordon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Paul Scofield and a host of celebrated acting talent.
These three legendary plays, performed by some of the best-known theatrical actors of the 20th century, are the perfect way to commemorate England's greatest dramatist.
The Winter's Tale: one man's consuming jealousy threatens to destroy both himself and those around him, but his actions arouse a passionate sense of honour, love, justice and self-sacrifice in members of his Court and family. First broadcast in 1982, starring Ronald Pickup as Leontes, with Hannah Gordon as Hermione and John Gielgud as Time.
Pericles: Pericles is haunted by Fate, buffeted by storms, driven from country to country and cruelly separated from his wife and daughter. Having endured the waywardness of Fortune, will he be reunited with his family? First broadcast in 1981, starring Tim Pigott-Smith as Pericles and Angharad Rees as Marina.
The Tempest: set on an enchanted island ruled by the sorcerer Prospero, this spellbinding tale of magic, illusion, forgiveness and repentance is one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. First broadcast in 1974, starring Paul Scofield as Prospero and Patrick Stewart as Caliban.
Recorded at BBC Broadcasting House and featuring the BBC Drama Repertory company, with specially composed music, this is classic radio drama at its finest.
©2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd. (P)2016 BBC Worldwide Ltd.