Audiobooks by David Thomson

Birds, Strangers and Psychos: New stories inspired by Alfred Hitchcock

"Birds, Strangers and Psychos is a thrilling anthology that brings together the biggest names in mystery and crime fiction to pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary filmmaker whose name is synonymous with suspense. Acclaimed editor Maxim Jakubowski curates 24 original short stories, each inspired by the mood, tension, and style that defined Hitchcock’s groundbreaking work. This anthology invites both emerging and established voices to reimagine the chilling atmospheres, twisted plots, and unforgettable characters of Hitchcock's films, from Psycho and Vertigo to North by Northwest and The Birds. Each author takes on the challenge of evoking the quintessentially 'Hitchcockian' elements that have captivated audiences for decades: ordinary lives interrupted by peril, psychological duels, and unexpected encounters that spiral into nightmares. The volume showcases an extraordinary blend of talent, including Lee Child, Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah, Vaseem Khan, MW Craven, Jeff Noon and S. A. Cosby and many more! Just as Hitchcock adapted stories from literary giants like Daphne du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, and Roald Dahl, Birds, Strangers and Psychos unites today's literary stars to craft new suspenseful tales that are destined to thrill, haunt, and unsettle. This volume is not just a collection of stories – it’s an invitation to rediscover the artistry of suspense."

A K Benedict, Ana Teresa Pereira, Anne Billson, David Thomson, Denise Mina, Donna Moore, Guy Adams, James Grady, Jeff Noon, Jerome Charyn, Joe R Lansdale, Keith Lansdale, Kim Newman, Lee Child, Lily Samson, M W Craven, Maxim Jacobwski, Nadine Matheson, Peter Lovesey, Peter Swanson, Ragnar Jónasson, S A Cosby, Sophie Hannah, Vaseem Khan, William Boyle, Xan Brooks (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film

"“A marvelous bombshell of a book, by one of our most formidably knowledgeable and insightful writers on film, it is filled with surprises and witty asides. Though Thomson is quick to pounce on the hypocrisies and historical omissions of some of these war movies, there is nothing compromised about his own daredevil judgments. We are in the hands of a master critic/essayist.”—Phillip Lopate From one of the greatest living writers on film, a magisterial look at a century of battle depicted on screen, and a meditation on the twisted relationship between war and the movies. In The Fatal Alliance the acclaimed film critic David Thomson offers us one of his most provocative books yet—a rich, arresting, and troubling study of that most beloved genre: the war movie. It is not a standard history or survey of war films, although Thomson turns his typically piercing eye to many favorites—from All Quiet on the Western Front to The Bridge on the River Kwai to Saving Private Ryan. But The Fatal Alliance does much more, exploring how war and cinema in the twentieth century became inextricably linked. Movies had only begun to exist by the beginning of World War I, yet in less than a century, had transformed civilian experience of war—and history itself—for millions around the globe. This reality is the moral conundrum at the heart of Thomson’s book. War movies bring both prestige and are so often box office blockbusters; but is there something problematic at how much moviegoers enjoy depictions of violence on a grand scale, such as Apocalypse Now, Black Hawk Down, or even Star Wars? And what does this truth say about us, our culture, and our changing sense of warfare and the past? "

David Thomson (Author), David Thomson (Narrator)

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Murder and the Movies

"How many acts of murder have each of us followed on a screen? What does that say about us? Do we remain law-abiding citizens who wouldn’t hurt a fly? Film historian David Thomson, known for wit and subversiveness, leads us into this very delicate subject. While unpacking classics such as Seven, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Strangers on a Train, The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining, he offers a disconcerting sense of how the form of movies makes us accomplices in this sinister narrative process. By turns seductive and astringent, very serious and suddenly hilarious, Murder and the Movies admits us into what Thomson calls 'a warped triangle': the creator working out a compelling death; the killer doing his and her best; and the entranced spectator trying to cling to life and a proper sense of decency."

David Thomson (Author), Chris Macdonnell (Narrator)

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Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire

"In this wholly original work of film criticism, David Thomson, celebrated author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film, probes the many ways in which sexuality has shaped the movies-and the ways in which the movies have shaped sexuality. Exploring the tangled notions of masculinity, femininity, beauty, and sex that characterize our cinematic imagination-and drawing on examples that range from advertising to pornography, Bonnie and Clyde to Call Me by Your Name-Thomson illuminates how film as art, entertainment, and business has historically been a polite cover for a kind of erotic séance. In so doing, he casts the art and the artists we love in a new light, and reveals how film can both expose the fault lines in conventional masculinity and point the way past it, toward a more nuanced understanding of what it means to be a person with desires."

David Thomson (Author), David Thomson (Narrator)

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