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Mark Macauley, an Anglo-Irish debut author whose book House of Slamming Doors has received rave reviews from a range of publications from the Times Literary Supplement to the Sun by way of the Guardian. We also get to hear a couple of chapters from the audiobook that he has produced himself with ambient sound effects that enhance the cracking good story as it unfolds apace with a cast of characters that he has successfully voiced himself….not so surprising as he trained as an actor and it shows! Stephen Fry says it’s “A marvellous achievement. It’s a Tubular Bells for the podcast and audiobook market.” Available on Audible.
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 feature DH Lawrence, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allan Poe, Amy Lowell and others.
This comes to you courtesy of Miniature Masterpieces who have an excellent range of quality short stories from the masters of the craft. Do search for them and many more on https://www.deadtreepublishing.com/
This hour opens with Rudyard Kipling’s ‘My Own True Ghost Story.’ Then we hear the dark humour of Saki in Tobermory read by Richard Mitchley followed by Daniel Defoe’s story entitled The Apparition of Mrs Veal read by Ghizela Rowe.
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.
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 NIGEL LAMBERT
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.