Showing results by narrator "Martin Jarvis" in All Categories

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'; so the recording begins and ends with some of Dickens's best-known words, and between those lines is every Briton's view of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. Set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, the audiobook tells the story of a French doctor who is imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille in Paris. Upon his release, he moves to London with his daughter, Lucie, whom he had never met.

The conned: an Oxford don, a revered society physician, a chic French art dealer, and a charming English lord. They have one thing in common. Overnight, each novice investor lost his life's fortune to one man. The con: Harvey Metcalfe. A brilliant, self-made guru of deceit. A very dangerous individual. And now, a hunted man. With nothing left to lose, four strangers are about to come together—each expert in their own field. Their plan: find Harvey, shadow him, trap him, and penny-for-penny, destroy him.

The Diary of Nobody (1892) created a cultural icon, an English archetype. Anxious, accident-prone, occasionally waspish, Charles Pooter has come to epitomize English suburban life. His diary chronicles encounters with difficult tradesmen, the delights of home improvements, small parties, minor embarrassments, and problems with his troublesome son. The suburban world he inhabits is hilariously and painfully familiar in its small-mindedness and its essential decency.

J. B. Priestley was one of Britain's most significant writers. His output was prodigious: in his lifetime, he penned 26 novels, 39 plays and hundreds of essays. He enjoyed great success on stage, notably with Dangerous Corner, Time and the Conways and An Inspector Calls, which experimented with narrative structure and unorthodox theories of time. Included here are some of his most esteemed works, adapted for radio and brought together in one statement collection.

After receiving death threats, an ex-jockey trainer friend calls Sid, a private investigator, to ask for his help, but Sid has his own problems to deal with, like recovering from surgery and saving his crumbling marriage. When his friend's stable yard is torched and the friend is found dead, Sid can only blame himself for not helping sooner. The police think it's suicide, but Sid is not convinced after his friend's terrified phone calls. With a guilty heart, Sid starts to investigate and soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy that cuts to the very heart of British horse racing.

No longer in master Bertie Wooster’s employ, Jeeves is engaged with a new employer, Lord "Chuffy" Chuffnell, an old friend of Bertie’s. True to form, thus follows a supreme comedy of errors which is guaranteed to raise many a chortle, as Wooster travels to one of Chuffy’s cottages in Dorset to carry on his banjolele practice in (dubious) peace.

Part of Wodehouse Blandings series. When a valuable scarab belonging to an American millionaire is absent-mindedly stolen by Lord Emsworth, young writers Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine are tasked with infiltrating Blandings Castle to retrieve it. Meanwhile, vacuous Freddie Threepwood worries that some compromising letters may scupper his engagement to the millionaire's daughter.

The Collected Blandings Short Stories. Blandings Castle is the home of Lord Emsworth, who likes nothing better than to potter at home in his enormous castle garden. But his rural idyll is once again set to be disturbed in these nine hilarious fables. No peace is possible when his sister Constance is let loose, and she is constantly trying to reorganise the household and its inhabitants! Without great success…

A sparkling collection of the major works of the ever-adored Oscar Wilde, with incredible casts including Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, Michael Sheen, Miriam Margolyes, Ian McDiarmid, Joely Richardson, Penelope Keith, Martin Jarvis, Diana Rigg, Simon Russell Beale, Sheila Hancock, Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry.

From Dick Francis and his son, Felix, comes Geoffrey Mason - a defense barrister whose true passion is riding his thoroughbred. Mason's two lives collide when a fellow jockey is accused of murdering a colleague with a pitchfork. Mason prefers not to get involved. But soon he is torn between doing what's right - and what will keep him alive.

A second wonderful collection of Just William stories, selected and read by Martin Jarvis. Richmal Crompton’s stories featuring irrepressible schoolboy William Brown have been firm favourites with both young and old for decades. Perpetually scruffy, mud-stained and mischievous, he is a lovable scamp whose pranks usually end in disaster - for his harassed elders at least. With friends Ginger, Douglas and Henry (the Outlaws) and the angelic thorn in his side, the lisping Violet Elizabeth Bott, William has rightly joined the literary and radio immortals.

This is the disturbing tale of the dual personality of Dr. Jekyll, a physician. A generous and philanthropic man, he is preoccupied with the problems of good and evil and with the possibility of separating them into distinct personalities. He develops a drug that transforms him into the demonic Mr. Hyde, in whose person he exhausts all the latent evil in his nature.

It’s high summer when Molly Pargeter drags her amiably bickering family to a rented Tuscan villa for the holidays. Molly is sure that the house is the perfect setting for their three-week getaway, but soon she becomes fascinated by the lives of the absent owners and things start to go horribly wrong.

James Bond seems unable to function after the death of his wife. Determined to restore 007 to the effective agent he used to be, M sends him on a mission to Japan, to the mysterious ‘Castle of Death’ and into the lair of an old and terrifying enemy. For Bond and Blofeld, this will be their final encounter. Only one of them can survive.

In his role as an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, Jeff Hinkley is approached by a multi-time champion jockey to discuss the delicate matter of losing races on purpose. Little does he know that the call will set off a lethal chain of events, including the apparent suicide of the jockey and an attempt on Hinkley’s own life.

The fifth volume in CSA Word's massively popular complete and unabridged ‘Short Stories’ collection is bound to please. With something for everyone this collection of classic stories read by only the best-suited and most established readers will delight the ears as a vintage wine excites the gullet; The Vintage Collection is audible gold. Features eye-catching typographical series design.

The usual suspects, including Lord Emsworth and his prize pig, the Empress, line up at Blandings Castle for a Wodehousian caper that sees members of the upper-classes getting hot and bothered over a nude painting they all want to get their hands on. This is wit at its very finest, read by one of our superlative actors, who reads Wodehouse with the requisite style and panache.

Now as famous on radio and audio as they are in print, the adventures of that irrepressible and ageless schoolboy William Brown have been delighting both young and old for decades. Perpetually scruffy, mud-stained, and mischievous, he is a lovable scamp whose pranks usually end in disaster, for his harassed elders at least. With friends Ginger, Douglas, and Henry (The Outlaws), and the angelic, lisping, thorn-in-his-side Violet Elizabeth Bott, William has rightly joined the literary, and radio, immortals. This volume of Just William features the following stories: William Goes To The Pictures, William The Intruder, William Below Stairs, The Fall Of The Idol, The Show, A Question Of Grammar, William Joins The Band Of Hope, The Outlaws, William And White Satin, William’s New Year’s Day, The Best Laid Plans, Jumble.

Here are 10 hilarious stories from the genius pen of Richmal Crompton, featuring legendary, lateral-thinking schoolboy William Brown.

Shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, Viola assumes the role of a male page to Duke Orsino. The Duke sends Viola, now disguised as ‘Cesario’ to press his suit with the beautiful Olivia–who promptly falls in love with Cesario. Confusion reigns until the truth is untangled and true love triumphs.