AuthorIan Sansom
NarratorIan Sansom
Duration9h 44m
CategoriesAdult Fiction, Poetry
PublisherHarper Collins
VersionUnabridged
This a book about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.This a book about a poet - W. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a victim-beneficiary of a literary cult of personality who became a scapegoat and a poet-expatriate largely excluded from British literary history because he left.About a poem - 'September 1, 1939', his most famous and celebrated, yet one which he tried to rewrite and disown and which has enjoyed - or been condemned - to a tragic and unexpected afterlife.About a city - New York, an island, an emblem of the Future, magnificent, provisional, seamy, and in 1939 about to emerge as the defining twentieth-century cosmopolis, the capital of the world.And about a world at a point of change - about 1939, and about our own Age of Anxiety, about the aftermath of September 11, when many American newspapers reprinted Auden's poem in its entirety on their editorial pages.
Author: George Mpanga
Author George Mpanga
Narrator George Mpanga
Duration 1h 8m
Search Party is a thought-provoking and deeply autobiographical collection. From the overtly political 'Go Home' to the deeply personal 'Full-time'; the narrative poems that offer vivid and unapologetic snapshots of inner-city life, such as 'His Mistakes', 'Believer' and the anthemic 'My City'; to the provocative social commentary in 'Lazy Dog' and...
View BookOld Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Author: T. S. Eliot
Author T. S. Eliot
Narrator Miranda Richardson
Duration 48m
The naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn't just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES. First of all, there's the name that the family use daily, Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James, Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey - All of them s...
View BookThe County Guides: Essex Poison
Author: Ian Sansom
Author Ian Sansom
Narrator Mike Grady
Duration 7h 40m
October 1937. Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, sets off to Essex to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley's daughter, Miriam, continues to cause chaos, and his assistant, Stephen Sefton, continues to slide deeper into depression and despair. Morley is an honorary guest at the Colchester Oyster Festival. But when the mayo...
View BookAuthor: By Benedict Flynn Translated
Author By Benedict Flynn Translated
Narrator Crawford Logan
Duration 2h 24m
The oldest long poem in Old English, written about 1000 A.D., Beowulf tells the story of a great warrior in Southern Scandinavia in both youth and maturity. The monster Grendel terrorises the Scyldings of Hrothgar's Danish Kingdom until Beowulf defeats him. As a result he has to face her enraged mother. Beowulf dies after a battle against a fierce...
View BookAuthor: Fiona Sampson
Author Fiona Sampson
Narrator Fiona Sampson
Duration 1h 9m
Rough Music is the old English name for a custom of public scapegoating. This collection, read here by the author, is full of disturbing musical echoes, in which brilliant renewals of carol, charm, folksong and ballad explore themes of violence, loss and belonging. Fiona Sampson's characteristic lyric intensity deftly fuses metaphysics and politics...
View BookAuthor: Tyler Knott Gregson
Author Tyler Knott Gregson
Narrator The Author
Duration 56m
Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Chasers Of The Light, written and read by Tyler Knott Gregson. I would love to say that you make me weak at the knees, but to be quite upfront and completely truthful, you make my body forget it has knees at all. One day, while browsing an antique store in Helena, Montana, photogra...
View BookAuthor: Various
Author Various
Narrator Various
Duration 1h 2m
A delightful collection from around the British Isles including Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, Leisure by W. H Davis and To Autumn by John Keats. Featuring classic recordings by Richard Burton, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.
View BookAuthor: Leonard Cohen
Author Leonard Cohen
Narrator Leonard Cohen
Duration 3h 12m
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Book of Longing written and read by Leonard Cohen. Book of Longing is Leonard Cohen's first book of new poetry since Book of Mercy was published two decades ago. It collects Cohen's poetry written between the 1980s and 2006, when this book was first published. Book of Longing demonstrates the range and dept...
View BookOld Toffer's Book of Consequential Dogs
Author: Christopher Reid
Author Christopher Reid
Narrator Robert Bathurst
Duration 51m
T. S. Eliot's best-selling collection of practical cat poems has been one of the most successful poetry collections in the world. For the first time in company history a companion volume will be published. Originally conceived by Eliot himself, Old Toffer's Book of Consequential Dog poems are a witty, varied and exquisitely compiled as Eliot's cats...
View BookThe County Guides: Westmorland Alone
Author: Ian Sansom
Author Ian Sansom
Narrator Mike Grady
Duration 7h 57m
Welcome to Westmorland. Perhaps the most scenic county in England! Home of the poets! Land of the great artists! District of the Great lakes! And the scene of a mysterious crime.... Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, once again sets off in his Lagonda to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Stranded in the market town of Appleby...
View Book