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AudioBookRadio are currently archiving many of the programmes we have broadcast. We know it’s not always convenient to listen at a particular time so we’re aiming for everyone to be able to choose from a selection of programmes when you want to as we are sure this is a choice you’d like to have.
The launch of any feature is usually easier said than done but we are looking to add materials on a weekly basis. If there are particular programmes or themes you’d like to hear again then please let us know.
As the archive builds, themes and pockets of interest will develop so you’ll be able to choose more of what you want to hear when you want to hear it.
There are other materials we plan to include here too. Some are what you might call ‘vintage’ or ‘historical’ or just plain old but we hope they’ll still be of interest. You’ll find them here.
Other programmes might just be too specialised to broadcast. Yes, that sounds like a euphemism for boring but it’s probably because they are odd lengths, too niche, a bit long winded by which we mean ‘slow to the boil’. Sometimes we just can’t get broadcast rights but we can deliver them on a one to one basis by streaming. If everything was logical it wouldn’t be as interesting!
Visit regularly for all the latest titles.
Radio Archive featuring Hollywood Stage, Take Five with Peter James & Kobo interviews with Margaret Atwood & Roddy Doyle
Prunella Scales Dandruff Hits The Turtleneck By John Mayfield. Read by Prunella Scales From the moment pub landlord and keen amateur entomologist, Arnold Matson, arrives in Blinkington-on-the-Treacle to take over his new hostelry, the listener is guided superbly by one of Britain’s best-loved actresses, Prunella Scales, as she introduces local characters and intimately narrates her way through a colourful collection of vignettes and poignant flashbacks that are both comically funny and disturbingly familiar.
Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney was born in April 1939, the eldest member of a family which would eventually contain nine children. Heaney, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, uses all aspects of Irish culture, history, folklore, song, myth, and religion to write poetry that not only describes the Irish experience to the reader, but also allows the reader to feel the experience and emotions of the Irish people. He received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1990.
Gore Vidal Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and the critically lauded, Palimpsest: A Memoir. Vidal’s United States (Essays 1952-1992) won the 1993 National Book Award. In its “American Masters” series PBS said “Vidal’s lineage in American literature may be traced back to Henry James, the sophisticated American from the upper echelons of society who mingles with European sophisticates, and Mark Twain, the raw humorist and critic of American empire.”
Noon & 8pm & 4am
PLAYS/DRAMA
MESSENGER WITHOUT WEAPON BY EDDIE LAWLER
The story of Hamburg-born writer Wolfgang Borchert (1921-1947) and his untimely death as a result of the Second World War. The youthful Wolfgang cannot imagine that the Hitler regime has the intelligence to last long, when all the fashions in music and clothing are coming from the USA, Britain and France. But he is swept into uniform and the horrors of war on the Eastern Front.
1pm & 9pm & 5am
IN CONVERSATION with LOUISE ERDRICH
Native American novelist Louise Erdrich, much-admired for her novels and children’s books centred in her native North Dakota, here reads a short story, “The Plague of Doves”, before joining in conversation with her friend, Gail Caldwell, the Pulitzer Prize winning critic of The Boston Globe.
2pm & 10pm & 6am
THE POETRY HOUR Vol 18 featuring Edmund Spenser & more
Poetry is often cited as our greatest use of words. The English language has well over a million and poets down the ages seem, at times, to make use of every single one. But often they use them in simple ways to describe anything and everything from landscapes to all aspects of the human condition. Poems can evoke within us an individual response that takes us by surprise; that opens our eyes and ears to very personal feelings. Forget the idea of classic poetry being somehow dull and boring and best kept to school textbooks. It still has life, vibrancy and relevance to our lives today. In this hour we’ll be listening to Edmund Spenser, The Poetry of Wind and Rain and Victorian Poetry Volume 3
All of them are from a dedicated poetry publisher – Portable Poetry who believe that poetry should be a part of our everyday lives, uplifting the soul & reaching the parts that other things can’t. Their range of audiobooks and ebooks cover volumes on some of our greatest poets to anthologies of seasons, months, places and a range of themes. Check them out at https://www.deadtreepublishing.com/ That’s Portable Poetry – poetry that carries you through!
3pm & 11pm & 7am
ALTERNATIVE RADIO with ARUN GUPTA
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 on Terrorism, Climate Change & Capitalism and given by Arun Gupta, journalist and activist who was a founding editor of The Indypendent and the Occupied Wall Street Journal. His articles appear in Alternet, Truthout, The Guardian and Z. He also appears on Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera.
4pm & Midnight & 8am
SHERLOCK HOLMES CLASSICS
ABR is proud to present two classic episodes starring Basil Rathbone. ‘The Problem of Thor Bridge’ followed by ‘The Adventure of Jasmine la Fleur.’
We close the hour with an author interview from KOBO and today’s guest is JAMES ROLLINS.
5pm & 1am & 9am
SPARK LONDON
The concept is stand out simple. Real people telling real stories.
A whopping 45 minutes-plus Spark London Special with a mixture of stories and songs. The theme for the evening was ‘Open Heart.’
TAKE FIVE with PAUL ‘SMILER’ ANDERSON
We asked the same five questions to a range of writers – today it’s…
PAUL ‘SMILER’ ANDERSON, a passionate mod revivalist and author of Mods, the New Religion. In his spare time he DJ’s and holds a full time job as a postman!
6pm & 2am & 10am
HOLLYWOOD STAGE with Captain Horatio Hornblower
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 CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER featuring GREGORY PECK
7pm & 3am & 11am
SHORT STORIES – LAWRENCE & WILDE
THE OLD ADAM BY D.H. LAWRENCE. READ BY DAVID SHAW-PARKER
David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley’s Lover are, of course, the most famous of Lawrence’s works.
THE SPHINX WITHOUT A SECRET BY OSCAR WILDE. READ BY MARTIN JARVIS
Lady Alroy is enigmatic in everything she does – a lady with the mysterious allure of a sphinx. She captures the heart of Lord Murchison with this mystery, to the point that he follows her to find out her secret. When he sees her going into a small house in a poor part of town, he jumps to the reasonable conclusion that she has a secret lover.