Showing results by narrator "Helen Smith" in All Categories

A man awakens in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit.

An acclaimed crime novelist and dramatist, Alison Joseph has scripted over 25 plays for BBC Radio. This collection showcases four of her original crime dramas, all specially written for Radio 4 – beginning with an apparently open-and-shut case for Sister Agnes that turns out to be anything but...

Kate Kerrigan has seen the blood-soaked face of war. But nothing has prepared her for the assault on her land that begins with an eviction order hammered onto the door of her family's cabin. Beautiful, cold-blooded Savannah Saint James has her sights set on the Kerrigan property - and 12 of the deadliest hired guns in Texas are ready to back her play. Kate has her sons by her side, a ragtag group of ranchers who don't like outsiders messing with their cattle, and a fighting spirit passed down from her Irish ancestors.

I draw the line at serving people grasshoppers for dinner. As luck would have it, on the same day I quit my job as head chef at Suzette’s, a fine-dining restaurant in Boston, I was offered an opportunity to open a restaurant at a castle in Scotland. But now that I’m here in Loren Brae, I’m not so sure this city girl can hack it.

Chloe and her husband Scott are holidaying with their families on the beautiful Greek island of Mykonos. But Chloe has a secret... She has hired a hitman to kill Scott when they return home. This week, her plan is to pretend to be such a happy wife that no suspicion can possibly fall on her after the murder. But she's reckoning without Scott’s meddlesome sister, Tori, plus the rivalries and demands of both families. Can she deal with them all while keeping her murderous intentions hidden?

"How We Think" by John Dewey was published in 1910. From the preface: "Our schools are troubled with a multiplication of studies, each in turn having its own multiplication of materials and principles. Our teachers find their tasks made heavier in that they have come to deal with pupils individually and not merely in mass. Some clew of unity, some principle that makes for simplification, must be found. This book represents the conviction that the needed steadying and centralizing factor is found in adopting as the end of endeavor that attitude of mind, that habit of thought, which we call scientific.

Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench. Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner.

Poet Ian McMillan is our host in this gleeful game of literary tomfoolery, outrageous parody and biting wit. Joining him for some lighthearted competitive wordplay are a quartet of writers and comedians, all ready and eager to run riot through the halls of great literature.

"His Grace of Osmonde" (1897) is a historical satire by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "Upon the village of Camylott there had rested since the earliest peep of dawn a hush of affectionate and anxious expectancy, the very plough-boys going about their labours without boisterous laughter, the children playing quietly, and the good wives bustling less and modulating the sharpness of their voices, the most motherly among them in truth finding themselves falling into whispering as they gossiped of the great subject of the hour.

Perfect for Janeites everywhere, this enticing collection brings together for the first time six special recordings that offer a glimpse behind the scenes at the life of the celebrated author. Taking us on a journey from her earliest teenage writings, to her love affair aged 20, to the scandalous arrest of her aunt which shook her family, these fascinating programmes offer a closer look at Jane Austen and those around her, as seen through her letters, writings and final home.

"A Lady of Quality" (1897) is a historical novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "On a wintry morning at the close of 1690, the sun shining faint and red through a light fog, there was a great noise of baying dogs, loud voices, and trampling of horses in the courtyard at Wildairs Hall; Sir Jeoffry being about to go forth a-hunting, and being a man with a choleric temper and big, loud voice, and given to oaths and noise even when in good-humour, his riding forth with his friends at any time was attended with boisterous commotion.

"Thoughts are Things" (1889) is a philosophical work by Prentice Mulford. Content: The Material Mind Vs The Spiritual Mind, Who Are Our Relations? Thought Currents, One Way To Cultivate Courage, Look Forward! God In The Trees; Or, The Infinite Mind In Nature, Some Laws Of Health And Beauty, Museum And Menagerie Horrors, The God In Yourself, The Healing And Renewing Force Of Spring, Immortality In The Flesh, The Attraction Of Aspiration, The Accession Of New Thought.

Room 101 is the anti-Desert Island Discs. Instead of picking the tracks, books and luxuries they love, guests are invited to banish their least favourite things to Orwell's eponymous chamber of horrors. Twenty-seven episodes of the show were broadcast on Radio 5 between 1992 and 1994, and it went on to run for 18 hit series on BBC TV before relaunching on Radio 4 in 2023. This specially curated collection contains 16 of the very best editions of the original radio series.

A founding father of American literature, James Fenimore Cooper was one of America's first professional novelists, and a pioneer of both the Western and the historical romance. Included here are his 1826 masterpiece The Last of the Mohicans and his 1821 classic The Spy, widely considered the world's first espionage novel.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies with Sidney Noir. This collection comprises of all new stories set in Sidney, Australia, by 14 authors of crime fiction....

"In the Closed Room" (1904) is a short novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "In the fierce airless heat of the small square room the child Judith panted as she lay on her bed. Her father and mother slept near her, drowned in the heavy slumber of workers after their day’s labour. Some people in the next flat were quarrelling, irritated probably by the appalling heat and their miserable helplessness against it. All the hot emanations of the sun-baked city streets seemed to combine with their clamour and unrest, and rise to the flat in which the child lay gazing at the darkness.

"Teddy Bears" (1907) is a charming story about the adventures of the titular toys by Adah Louise Sutton. Excerpt from the book: "Some of them were dressed in delightful worsted sweaters and peaked toboggan caps, each having a long tassel that hung over at the side. And there were also the cutest woolen leggings to match. Others were arrayed in little cotton overalls and a few in the most fascinating pajamas. Most of them, however, wore only their own furry coats. And very fine indeed they looked after all the brushing and grooming.

Robin (1921) is a historical novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt from the book: "In the years when Victorian standards and ideals began to dance an increasingly rapid jig, there lived in Mayfair, in a slice of a house, Robert Gareth-Lawless and his lovely young wife. So light and airy was she to earthly vision and so diaphanous the texture of her mentality that she was known as 'Feather.'

Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench. Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner. All that changes abruptly, however, when the sorceress Sharee re-enters his life with the forces of the warlike Lord Bellicose hard on her heels. They want something they're convinced she has stolen.

"The Dawn of a To-morrow" (1906) is an existential short story by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Excerpt: "There are always two ways of looking at a London fog. When it is thick and yellow in the streets and stings a man's throat and lungs as he breathes it, an awakening in the early morning is either an unearthly and grewsome, or a mysteriously enclosing, secluding, and comfortable thing.