Noon & 8pm & 4am

PLAYS/DRAMA

VALENTINE’S DAY BY DEREK WEBB

When Chris gives his wife Nicola a present of some saucy undies as well as a card on Valentine’s Day, it’s with the hope of spicing up their marriage. She is a successful advertising executive, whose career seems to be assuming more and more importance. In the post, she also gets another card from someone called Stuart who she doesn’t know. But he certainly seems to know her and isn’t content with just sending a card.

THE TREE BY ERIC YAFFEY

Gary and Jed have arrived to cut down The Tree as part of a road building programme. But this tree is special – it has a history that links it with humanity in general and Gary in particular. As the fates of The Tree and Gary are so linked what will the consequences be? This is a fine environmental allegory.

1pm & 9pm & 5am

IN CONVERSATION with RICHARD POWERS

Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction

2pm & 10pm & 6am

POETRY HOUR – CAVE CANEM EVENING

Cave Canem Evening featuring Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Terrance Hayes, Patricia Smith, and Frank X Walker. Cave Canem (Beware of the Dog) is an organization committed to the discovery and cultivation of new voices in African American poetry.  This celebratory poetry evening lasted for almost two and a half hours so we have included works from the first hour here. We will be broadcasting the second half of the show in the coming weeks.

3pm & 11pm & 7am

ALTERNATIVE RADIO with WES JACKSON

Here at Audiobook Radio we are keen to provide a range of voices – very literally as well as in terms of opinions and views of the world. This strand created by Alternative Radio does just that. We will hear from some of the most informed minds and greatest social activists of our time whose take on justice and power does not chime with those that hold the power and don’t provide justice for all so we rarely get to hear from them in mainstream media. Different opinions always help inform our own and we are always eager to hear from listeners about this or any other strand. Contact us on the tab at www.audiobookradio.net

Today’s talk is given by Wes Jackson, a plant geneticist and a leading voice for agrarian reform away from domesticated agriculture. He is the author of New Roots for Agriculture and many books. He is founder of The Land Institute and a member of the World Future Council.

4pm & Midnight & 8am

SHERLOCK HOLMES CLASSICS

ABR is proud to present two classic episodes starring Basil Rathbone. ‘A Case of Identity’ followed by ‘The Adventure of Beggar Woman.’

We close the hour with an author interview from KOBO and today’s guest is KATE ATKINSON.

5pm & 1am & 9am

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY THE INTERVIEW HOUR

ABR welcomes Publisher’s Weekly, an authority on all things books & publishing for a delve into the archives to come up with a couple of great author interviews.  Today JOYCE CAROL OATES & GAY TALESE.  Their podcast, as always, is presented by Rose Fox and Mark Rotella.

6pm & 2am & 10am

HOLLYWOOD STAGE with Strawberry Blonde

Hollywood is indelibly printed in our minds as a go to place for entertainment and has been for decades. We take you back in time as The Hollywood ringmaster himself, CECIL B DE MILLE unveils…Strawberry Blonde featuring RITA HAYWORTH.

7pm & 3am & 11am

SHORT STORIES – MANSFIELD & LE FANU

THE GARDEN PARTY BY KATHERINE MANSFIELD. READ BY EVE KARPF.

Widely anthologized, ‘The Garden Party’ is considered Katherine Mansfield’s finest piece of short fiction. Such modernist authors as Virginia Woolf were profoundly influenced by Mansfield’s stream-of-consciousness and symbolic narrative style. ”The Garden Party” is a remarkably rich and innovative work that incorporates Mansfield’s defining themes: New Zealand, childhood, adulthood, social class, class conflict, innocence, and experience.

THE GHOST AND THE BONE SETTER BY JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU. READ BY T.P. MCKENNA.

Irish journalist, novelist, and short story writer, called the father of the modern ghost story. Although Le Fanu was one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era, he is not so widely read anymore. Le Fanu’s best-known works include Uncle Silas (1864), a suspense story, and The House by the Churchyard (1863), a murder mystery. His vampire story ‘Carmilla,’ which influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula, has been filmed several times. ‘The Ghost and the Bone-Setter’ first appeared in the Dublin University Magazine in 1838.

THURSDAY 5th June

12oon & 8pm & 4am

PLAYS/DRAMA

CORMORANT BY SARAH HUTCHINGS and HIL COOKE

Unworldly John and injured sailor, McKinney wash up on an uninhabited island, the only survivors of a terrifying shipwreck. When the pair is finally rescued John isolates himself in an anonymous bed-sit owned by the grotesque Mrs Paskins. Haunted by the sounds of the island, he shies away from human contact communing only with the disturbing voices in his dreams. John’s new neighbour Crow sees life through a haze of delusional paranoia and finds it hard to respect John’s need for solitude. Edgy, secretive John is the perfect focus for Crow’s over-active imagination and he becomes obsessed with investigating John’s nocturnal rituals. However, his surveillance soon turns to clumsy overtures of friendship. Despite his protestations John is forced to turn to Crow for help when his ‘voices’ start to blur his sense of reality.

1pm & 9pm & 5am

IN CONVERSATION with CHARLES SIMIC

Charles Simic has published over sixty books of poetry as well as many translations of French, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovenian poetry. He was born in Yugoslavia in 1938 and moved with his family to the United States in 1953. His poetry first appeared in The Chicago Review .The poet Seamus Heaney described Simic’s work as, “Surrealist, and therefore comic, but with a specific gravity in his imagining that manages to avoid the surrealist penalty of weightlessness.”

2pm & 10pm & 6am

POETRY featuring EAVAN BOLAND

Eavan Boland explores the relationship between gender, art, and national identity in her work. She was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1944 and educated in London, New York, and Dublin.

3pm & 11pm & 7am

ALTERNATIVE RADIO with VANDANA SHIVA & DAVID SUZUKI

Here at Audiobook Radio we are keen to provide a range of voices – very literally as well as in terms of opinions and views of the world. This strand created by Alternative Radio does just that. We will hear from some of the most informed minds and greatest social activists of our time whose take on justice and power does not chime with those that hold the power and don’t provide justice for all so we rarely get to hear from them in mainstream media. Different opinions always help inform our own and we are always eager to hear from listeners about this or any other strand. Contact us on the tab at www.audiobookradio.net

Today’s talk is entitled The Pandemic Wake-up Call with Vandana Shiva, the physicist and internationally renowned voice for sustainable development and social justice. Joining her is David Suzuki the Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and leading environmentalist and science educator.

4pm & Midnight & 8am

SHERLOCK HOLMES CLASSICS

ABR is proud to present two classic episodes starring Basil Rathbone. ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ followed by ‘The Bruce Partington Plans’

We close the hour with an author interview from KOBO and today’s guest is MARGARET ATWOOD.

5pm & 1am & 9am

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY THE INTERVIEW HOUR

ABR welcomes Publisher’s Weekly, an authority on all things books & publishing for a delve into the archives to come up with a couple of great author interviews. Today it is Richard Lange with his book Sweet Nothing and Gabriel Weston with her Dirty Work.  Their podcast as always is presented by ROSE FOX and MARK ROTELLA who ask the questions.

6pm & 2am & 10am

HOLLYWOOD STAGE with Ruggles of Red Gap

Hollywood is indelibly printed in our minds as a go to place for entertainment and has been for decades. We take you back in time as The Hollywood ringmaster himself, CECIL B DE MILLE unveils Ruggles of Red Gap featuring CHARLES LAUGHTON

7pm & 3am & 11am

SHORT STORIES – WHARTON, DICKENS & LAWRENCE

THE MUSE’S TRAGEDY BY EDITH WHARTON READ BY JANET MAW

This originally and innovatively structured story’s muse is Mary Anerton the subject of poet Victor Rendle’s best known works.  Her encouragement for our protagonist Danyers to write a book on the poet results in her own tragedy.

MR. TESTATOR’S VISITATION BY CHARLES DICKENS. READ BY GARARD GREEN.

A short piece reminiscent of Pickwick, in which a poor man borrows some furniture without permission. The owner turns up months later, a drunken man who consumes all the man’s gin then disappears, a ghost.

A LESSON ON A TORTOISE BY D.H. LAWRENCE. READ BY DAVID SHAW-PARKER.

After another long week in school, it is the final lesson on Friday and a teacher has an idea which should lift the classroom spirits.