12 Noon & 8pm & 4am

PLAYS/DRAMA

LAYING GHOSTS BY CLARE REDDAWAY

When Connie’s beloved husband Jack dies after 27 years of marriage, Connie hopes that her only son Gary will console her. Gary, however, finds that level of commitment a bit, well, too much of a commitment. Connie is left with interfering neighbour Val until Gary’s girlfriend Sandra rings with some unexpected news. This sets Connie on a journey from a village in the Midlands to Hackney and eventually to Ghana as she finds a way to come to terms with her grief and to forge new friendships and a new life.

Performed by The Wireless Theatre Company.

CHILLED WINE BY DOROTHY LAMBERT

Three girls are meeting in a pub. First to arrive are Louise and Charlotte and, while waiting, they share confidences and discuss Gemma’s shortcomings and promiscuous partner. But they are in for a surprise when Gemma finally arrives.

Performed by Pint Sized Plays.

1pm & 9pm & 5am                 

IN CONVERSATION with B.H. FAIRCHILD

B. H. Fairchild‘s poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and The Yale Review. He grew up in small towns in Texas, Oklahoma, and southwest Kansas. His books include The Arrival of the Future, The Art of the Lathe, and most recently, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest: Poems. He reads his poems and talks about his work.

2pm & 10pm & 6am

POETRY featuring JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a poet, memoirist, activist, and native New Mexican. His books include a memoir, A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet, and the story collection, The Importance of a Piece of Paper. “Language placed my life experiences in a new context, freeing me for the moment to become with air as air, with clouds as clouds, from which new associations arose to engage me in present life in a more purposeful way.” His recent novel, A Glass of Water, tells the story of Casimiro and Nopal who carry with them the promise of a new beginning as young immigrants having made the nearly deadly journey across the border from Mexico. The Dallas Morning News says, “An insistent theme of redemption blends with an unexpected lyrical tenderness, confirming that even in the harsh landscape of his stories, Mr. Baca sees a horizon of hope.”

3pm & 11pm & 7am

ALTERNATIVE RADIO with THOMAS FRANK

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 Country that Voted for Trump and is given by Thomas Frank who is a prominent political commentator and the founding editor of The Baffler magazine. He is the author of many books including One Market Under God, What’s the Matter with Kansas? The Wrecking Crew, Pity the Billionaire and Listen, Liberal.

4pm & Midnight & 8am

SHERLOCK HOLMES CLASSICS

ABR is proud to present two classic episodes starring Basil Rathbone. ‘The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone’ followed by ‘An Incident from Six Napoleons.’

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

5pm & 1am & 9am

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY INTERVIEW HOUR

ABR welcomes Publisher’s Weekly, an authority on all things books & publishing for author interviews from their well-stocked archive.  As always asking the questions are Rose Fox and Mark Rotella and the featured authors are Kabir Sehgal on his financial book Coined and Daniel Jose Elder with his latest book Half-Resurrection Blues.

6pm & 2am & 10am

HOLLYWOOD STAGE with Irene

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…Irene featuring JEANETTE MCDONALD

7pm & 3am & 11am

SHORT STORIES – DOYLE, WALLACE & SAKI

THE DISINTEGRATION MACHINE BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. READ BY NICKY HENSON.

Professor Challenger is arguing with people who are persistently calling him on the telephone when his young friend Malone, a reporter for the Gazette, enters and requests Challenger accompany him to inspect the discovery of Theodore Nemor, who claims to have invented a machine capable of disintegrating objects. Sceptical of the invention, Challenger accepts Malone’s proposal and accompanies him to the house of Nemor.

THE MAN OF THE NIGHT BY EDGAR WALLACE. READ BY ROBIN BAILEY.

Born in 1875 the illegitimate son of an actress, Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was adopted by a Billingsgate fish-porter and grew up in the poorer streets of London. He wrote more than 170 books, mostly thrillers, and also plays and countless newspaper articles. This short story deals a repentant criminal and the paranormal…

THE UNREST CURE BY SAKI. READ BY RICHARD MITCHLEY.

Saki’s recurring hero Clovis Sangrail, a sly young man, overhears the complacent middle-aged Huddle complaining of his own addiction to routine and aversion to change. Huddle’s friend makes the wry suggestion of the need for an “unrest-cure” (the opposite of a rest cure) to be performed, if possible, in the home. Clovis takes it upon himself to “help” the man and his sister by involving them in an invented outrage that will be a “blot on the twentieth century.”

THURSDAY 3rd April

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.