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.”

SATURDAY 7th June

Noon & 8pm & 4am

PLAYS/DRAMA

THE BALLAD OF C33 BY FRANCIS SARGENT & KNIGHT MARTELL

Lover of beauty Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years’ hard labour in prison.  During his imprisonment, he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 under the name C.33 which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This ensured that Wilde’s name – by then notorious – did not appear on the poem’s front cover. It was not commonly known, until the 7th printing in June 1899, that C.33 was actually Wilde.  Performed by The Wireless Theatre Company.

1pm & 9pm & 5am

IN CONVERSATION with JAMES HANSEN

James Hansen is well known for his research in the field of climatology and for helping to bring global warming to the world’s attention in the 1980s. In recent years, he has become active in promoting efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Hansen, Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, is the author of Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity.

2pm & 10pm & 6am

POETRY featuring BRIAN TURNER & BRUCE WEIGL

Brian Turner is a soldier-poet whose debut book of poems, Here, Bullet, won the New York Times “Editor’s Choice” selection. His poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology. Here, Bullet is a harrowing, beautiful first-person account of the Iraq war featuring poems that reflect Turner’s experiences as a soldier. The poems speak with compassion, sympathy, and horror of the first-hand experience of war and with immediacy of loss, beauty, comradeship, and longing for home and the familiar; he deplores the violence and acknowledges the grief and terror of war.

Bruce Weigl is the author of 12 collections of poetry, most recently Declension in the Village of Chung Luong which created “an eloquent spokesman for an entire generation of Americans whose lives were broken by the war and a country whose moral confusion desperately needed addressing.” His memoir, The Circle of Hahn, tells of his childhood in Ohio; his induction into the U.S. Army in 1967, and year in Vietnam that led to his passion for that country’s poetry and culture; and of a redemptive meeting in 1996 with his daughter-to-be at an orphanage outside Hanoi.

3pm & 11pm & 7am

ALTERNATIVE RADIO with ROBERT McCHESNEY

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 Robert McChesney who is Professor of Communications at the University of Illinois and is talking about the problems with the media.  He is the author of many books including Digital Disconnect and the co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organisation. 

4pm & Midnight & 8am

SHERLOCK HOLMES CLASSICS

ABR is proud to present two classic episodes, this time starring Tom Conway as Holmes. ‘The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor’ is followed by ‘The Boscombe Valley Mystery.’

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

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 Sarah Eckel with her book ‘It’s Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single’ and Carla Kaplan talking about her book Miss Ann in Harlem :The White Women of the Black Renaissance.’  Their podcast, as always, is presented by Rose Fox and Mark Rotella.

6pm & 2am & 10am

HOLLYWOOD STAGE with The Buccaneer

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 The Buccaneer featuring CLARK GABLE

7pm & 3am & 11am

SHORT STORIES – KIPLING & NESBIT

GEORGIE PORGIE BY RUDYARD KIPLING. READ BY EDWARD FOX.

A man breaks his promise to his Burmese wife, whom he bought essentially as a housekeeper. He bemoans his low station in such a remote colonial outpost, however, and returns to England to marry a proper British wife before moving to India and a higher diplomatic posting. The faithful Burmese wife, thinking he is in danger, seeks him out and follows him to India.

THE GARDEN OF TRUTH BY E. NESBIT. READ BY HARRIET WALTER.

Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children’s works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a precursor to the modern Labour Party. She is regarded by some as the first ‘modern writer for children’ but this short story can certainly be enjoyed and appreciated by adults as well.