Audiobooks by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Man Born To Be King: A BBC Radio 4 drama collection

Dorothy L. Sayers' classic play cycle based on the life and times of Jesus Dorothy L. Sayers was best known for her mystery novels featuring aristocratic amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. But she was also a poet, playwright and committed Christian, and in The Man Born to Be King she combined art and evangelism to powerful effect, making the story of Christ accessible, relevant and every bit as thrilling as her detective fiction. Written specially for the BBC Radio, the play cycle caused huge controversy for its depiction of Christ as a character, and its use of contemporary speech instead of Biblical language. However it proved extremely popular with listeners, who wrote in to thank Sayers for making Jesus real to them and reigniting their interest in his remarkable story. Based on the four Gospels, it includes one story of the Nativity, six plays about Jesus' life and ministry, and five Passion Plays telling of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, Jesus' arrest and trial before Pontius Pilate, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Backed up with a sweeping musical score, these immersive dramas surprise and shock us anew and provide fresh, illuminating insight into 'the greatest story ever told'. The plays included are Kings in Judea, The King's Herald, A Certain Nobleman, The Heirs to the Kingdom, The Bread of Heaven, The Feast of Tabernacles, The Light and The Life, Royal Progress, The King's Supper, The Princes of This World, King of Sorrows and The King Comes to His Own. Cast and credits Written by Dorothy L Sayers Adapted by/Producer: Raymond Raikes The Evangelist (John Bar-Zebedee): Gabriel Woolf Jesus: John Westbrook Joseph/ Jacob Ben-Issachar: Norman Shelley Simon Bar-Jonah (Simon Peter): Stephen Jack Judas Iscariot: Alan Wheatley Matthew: Nigel Stock Herod The Great: Robert Eddison Nicodemus: John Wyse Ephraim: Denys Blakelock Shadrach: Malcolm Hayes Rabbit Solomon: John Gabriel Phoebe: Caroline Monkhouse Flavius: Trader Faulkner Calpurnia: Penelope Lee Mary Virgin: June Tobin Mary Magdalen: Mary Wimbush Martha: Marjorie Westbury Lazarus: Richard Hurndall Benjamin Ben-Hadad: Ralph Truman Joseph, kinsman to Jesus: Haydn Jones Simeon, kinsman to Jesus: Wilfrid Carter Baruch the Zealot: Francis de Wolff Baruch's Wife: Vivienne Chatterton Gestas: John Laurie Dysmas: Russell Napier Simon of Cyrene: Rodney Dias Proclus, a Roman Centurion: Trevor Martin Roman soldier: Bruce Beeby Roman soldier: Harvey Hall Joseph of Arimathea: Howieson Culff Calaphas, High Priest of Israel: Heron Carvic Salome, mother to James and John: Henzie Raeburn Mary Cleophas: Molly Rankin Balthazar, King of Ethiopia: Paul Danqdah Melchior/ A Zealot: Michael Kilgarriff Casper: James Dale Philip: Rolf Lefebvre Thomas Didymus/ Father: Philip Leaver Mother: Wynne Clark Miriam, child: Elizabeth Proud Isaac, child/a slave boy: Daniel Rose Hannah: Hester Paton-Brown James Bar-Zebedee: John Glen Andrew Bar-Jonah: John Boxer Hezekiah, secretary/ Roman Soldier: John Baker Annas, father-in-law to Caiaphas: Edward Atienza Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judaea: Alec Clunes Claudia Procula: Mary Law Captain Elihu: Keith Alexander Eunice, a Syro-Phoenician: Elizabeth Morgan Cleophas: Harry Hutchinson Portress at the High Priest's House: Miriam Margolyes Zillah, her daughter: Jo Manning-Wilson Issacher, servant: Hugh Dickson Susannah, mother to the Bride groom: Betty Baskcomb Rebecca, friend to Susannah: Gladys Spencer/ Janet Burnell Other cast: Ian Frost, Janette Richer, Nan Marriott-Watson, Janette Richer, Peter Marinker, Raf de la Torre, James Thomason, John Forrest, Michael Goldie First broadcast BBC Home Service 19th, 26th Jan, 2nd, 9th , 16th, 23rd Feb, 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 28th, 30th March 1975 ©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Full Cast, Gabriel Woolf, John Laurie, John Westbrook, Mary Wimbush, Miriam Margolyes, Norman Shelley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Whose Body: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery

This is the first story written about a man who became interested in criminal investigation as just a hobby. It came as somewhat of a surprise to him when it became an occupation. This was Peter Wimsey, referred to as Lord Peter because he was the younger son of a Duke, justifying the courtesy title. He didn't have a right to sit in the House of the Lords, but that didn't seem to matter among his friends and associates. This initial disclosure of his activities began when a man's dead body was found in a bathtub in a London flat. He was nude and wearing only gold pince-nez glasses on his nose. The body was first thought to be well-known financier Sir Reuben Levy, who had disappeared overnight. There was a resemblance, but it was quickly discovered he wasn't the victim, even though he was still missing. There was a teaching hospital nearby, and suspicions were aroused that the corpse may have been placed as a prank by medical students. That, too, proved erroneous when respected surgeon-neurologist Sir Julian Freke disclosed no body was missing from the dissection room. The lack of information brought Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Park to the investigation, and he welcomed the assistance of Lord Wimsey. It was three years before another book about Lord Wimsey, but author Dorothy L. Sayers eventually turned out ten more stories featuring him. We listen now to the original effort.

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), John Rayburn (Narrator)

Audiobook

Six Against the Yard

A unique anthology for crime aficionados – six ‘perfect murder’ stories written by the most accomplished crime writers of the 1930s, designed to fox real-life Scotland Yard Superintendent Cornish, who comments on whether or not these crimes could have genuinely been solved. Is the ‘perfect murder’ possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable – even to the most astute investigator? In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel… This clever literary battle of wits from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral and Ask a Policeman back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the experts from the Golden Age of detective fiction at their most ingenious. For true crime aficionados, this new edition includes an essay by Agatha Christie, one of the inaugural members of the Detection Club. Unseen since 1929, her article discusses the infamous Croydon Poisonings, a real-life perfect murder, the solution to which remains a mystery to this day…

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Freeman Wills Crofts, Margery Allingham, Ronald Knox, The Detection Club (Author), Philip Bretherton, Sherry Baines (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bodies from the Library 3

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form. The Golden Age of detective fiction had begun inauspiciously with the publication of E.C. Bentley’s schismatic Trent’s Last Case in 1913, but it hit its stride in 1920 when both Agatha Christie and Freeman Wills Crofts – latterly crowned queen and king of the genre – had crime novels published for the first time. They ushered in two decades of exemplary mystery writing, the era of the whodunit, the impossible crime and the locked-room mystery, with stories that have thrilled and baffled generations of readers. This new volume in the Bodies from the Library series features the work of 16 prolific authors who, like Christie and Crofts, saw their popularity soar during the Golden Age. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction – stories, serials and plays – and although most of them have been collected in books over the last 100 years, here are the ones that got away… In this book you will encounter classic series detectives including Colonel Gore, Roger Sheringham, Hildegarde Withers and Henri Bencolin; Hercule Poirot solves ‘The Incident of the Dog’s Ball’; and Dorothy L. Sayers’ chilling ‘The House of the Poplars’ is published for the first time. With a full-length novella by John Dickson Carr, this diverse collection concludes with some early ‘flash fiction’ commissioned by Collins’ Crime Club in 1938. Each mini story had to feature an orange, resulting in six very different tales from Peter Cheyney, Ethel Lina White, David Hume, Nicholas Blake, John Rhode and – in his only foray into writing detective fiction – the publisher himself, William Collins.

Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, Nicholas Blake, Tony Medawar (Author), Philip Bretherton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ask a Policeman

This new edition, which is reproduced from a first printing of the book, is introduced by the author Martin Edwards, archivist of the Detection Club, and includes a never-before-published Preface by Agatha Christie, ‘Detective Writers in England’, in which she discusses her fellow writers in the Detection Club. Lord Comstock is a barbarous newspaper tycoon with enemies in high places. His murder in the study of his country houseposes a dilemma for the Home Secretary. In the hours before his death, Lord Comstock’s visitors included the government Chief Whip, an Archbishop, and the Assistant Commissioner for Scotland Yard. Suspicion falls upon them all and threatens the impartiality of any police investigation. Abandoning protocol, the Home Secretary invites four famous detectives to solve the case: Mrs Adela Bradley, Sir John Saumarez, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Mr Roger Sheringham. All are different, all are plausible, all are on their own – and none of them can ask a policeman… This classic whodunit adopted a completely new approach: Milward Kennedy proposed the title, John Rhode plotted the murder and provided the suspects, and four of their contemporaries were asked to lend their well-known detectives to the task of providing solutions to the crime. But there was to be another twist: the authors would swap detectives and use the characters in their sections of the book. Thus Gladys Mitchell and Helen Simpson swapped Mrs Bradley and Sir John Saumarez, and Dorothy Sayers and Anthony Berkeley swapped Lord Peter Wimsey and Roger Sheringham, enabling the authors to indulge in skilful and sly parodies of each other. The contributors to ASK A POLICEMAN are: John Rhode, Helen Simpson, Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, Milward Kennedy with Agatha Christie and Martin Edwards.

Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Helen Simpson, The Detection Club (Author), David Timson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Whose Body?: The Singular Adventure of the Man with the Golden Pince-Nez: A Lord Peter Wimsey Myster

Note: This edition of the first Lord Peter Wimsey novel is narrated in an American accent. Mild-mannered, inoffensive architect Alfred Thipps finds himself in big trouble when, in preparing to take his morning bath, he finds the tub already occupied by a dead body, wearing nothing but a pair of gold pince-nez glasses. Stolid, unimaginative Police Inspector Sugg is convinced the body is that of Sir Reuben Levy, a famous Jewish financier who disappeared the night before - waving aside objections that, as the body in the tub was uncircumcised, it couldn't be Sir Reuben - and promptly arrests Thipps and his maid for murder. Luckily for both of them, the dowager duchess of Denver takes an interest and asks her son, Lord Peter Wimsey, to help out. Working with his old friend Detective Charles Parker of Scotland Yard, who's been assigned to the Levy case, Lord Peter sets himself to the task of figuring out who the dead man in the bathtub is. He soon grows to suspect that the two cases are connected in a particularly sinister way.... Lord Peter soon finds himself on the trail of a murderer of a particularly cunning sort, fresh from the perpetration of a shockingly cold-blooded and horrific crime.

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Justin Longbourn (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bodies from the Library 2: Forgotten Stories of Mystery and Suspense by the Queens of Crime and othe

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 13 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Gervase Fen novella by Edmund Crispin that has never previously been published. With the Golden Age of detective fiction shining ever more brightly thanks to the recent reappearance of many forgotten crime novels, Bodies from the Library offers a rare opportunity to read lost stories from the first half of the twentieth century by some of the genre's most accomplished writers. This second volume is a showcase for popular figures of the Golden Age, in stories that even their most ardent fans will not be aware of. It includes uncollected and unpublished stories by acclaimed queens and kings of crime fiction, from Helen Simpson, Ethel Lina White, E.C.R. Lorac, Christianna Brand, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, to S.S. Van Dine, Jonathan Latimer, Clayton Rawson, Cyril Alington and Antony and Peter Shaffer (writing as Peter Antony). This audiobook also features two full-length novellas - one from a rare magazine by Q Patrick, the other an unpublished Gervase Fen mystery by Edmund Crispin, written at the height of his career. It concludes with another remarkable discovery: 'The Locked Room' by Dorothy L. Sayers, a never-before-published case for Lord Peter Wimsey! Selected and introduced by Tony Medawar, who also provides fascinating pen portraits of each author, Bodies in the Library 2 is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf.

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin, Tony Medawar (Author), Philip Bretherton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Whose Body?

After a corpse wearing pince-nez glasses is found in a bathtub, Lord Peter Wimsey undertakes the case and investigates the deed privately. But determining whether the corpse belongs to a well-known banker or a group of mischief-making medical students is just the beginning of this tangled mystery plot. This atmospheric novel put Dorothy L. Sayers in the ranks with Agatha Christie as a mystery writer nonpareil.

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Mark Meadows (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lord Peter Wimsey: BBC Radio Drama Collection Volume 3: Four BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations

Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in these classic BBC radio dramatisations of Dorothy L Sayers' Golden Age crime novels. Gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey starred in a number of novels and short stories by Dorothy L Sayers. These full-cast adaptations - first broadcast on BBC radio between 1979 and 2010 - are cherished by crime aficionados worldwide. Murder Must Advertise sees Lord Peter going undercover in an advertising agency to investigate the death of a copywriter. The Nine Tailors finds the aristocratic detective stranded in a remote village, where he is drawn into a case of stolen jewels and an unidentified body. Gaudy Night takes place at Harriet Vane's old Oxford college, where a series of spiteful pranks and poison-pen letters have torn apart the academic community. With Lord Peter's help, can she uncover the perpetrator? In Busman's Honeymoon, newlyweds Harriet and Peter have their marital bliss disturbed by a body in the basement - and are once again embroiled in a murder investigation. These evocative dramas also feature Allan Cuthbertson, Peter Jones, Joanna David and Sarah Badel. Also included on this release is a bonus interview with top crime novelists P. D. James and Jill Paton Walsh about Gaudy Night, conducted by Henny Fordham.

Dorothy L Sayers, Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), , Ian Carmichael (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lord Peter Wimsey: BBC Radio Drama Collection Volume 2: Four BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations

Ian Carmichael is Lord Peter Wimsey in these consummate BBC radio dramatisations of Dorothy L Sayers' much-loved mysteries Elegant, erudite and sharp-witted, aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey featured in numerous novels and short stories by 'Queen of Crime' Dorothy L Sayers. These full-cast adaptations first broadcast on BBC radio between 1975 and 1981are loved by mystery fans all around the world. In The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, when General Fentiman is found dead at his club, Wimsey suspects foul play. Could he have been murdered for his money? Strong Poison introduces Harriet Vane a crime novelist on trial for murdering her lover. Wimsey knows Harriet is no femme fatale, but an innocent victim embroiled in a diabolical plot. Five Red Herrings sees Peter faced with six men, all of whom have a motive for killing argumentative Scottish painter Sandy Campbell. But who was the culprit? In Have His Carcase, when Harriet Vane finds a body on the beach with his throat cut, Lord Peter must work out whether it was murder or suicide. These classic dramas also feature Peter Jones, Joan Hickson, Miriam Margolyes and Warren Clarke.

Dorothy L Sayers, Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), , Ian Carmichael (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lord Peter Wimsey: BBC Radio Drama Collection Volume 1: Three classic full-cast dramatisations

Ian Carmichael stars as Lord Peter Wimsey in these definitive BBC radio dramatisations of Dorothy L Sayers' classic crime novelsAristocratic amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey was the master creation of Dorothy L Sayers, widely acknowledged as one of the four original ‘Queens of Crime’. These full-cast adaptations – first broadcast on BBC radio in the 1970s, and presented here in their entirety – are admired by fans of the genre worldwide.Whose Body? is the tale that first introduced Lord Peter to the world, and sees him investigating the case of a corpse in a Battersea bathtub and a vanished oil millionaire.In Clouds of Witness, Lord Peter’s eldest brother stands accused of murder. In collaboration with Inspector Parker, Wimsey slowly uncovers a web of lies and deceit within his own family...Unnatural Death finds Peter probing the mysterious death of an elderly lady. He suspects foul play, and with the help of the indomitable Miss Climpson, sets about his investigations in deepest Hampshire...Produced by Simon Brett (author of the ‘Charles Paris’ series), these acclaimed dramas also feature Peter Jones, Patricia Routledge, Miriam Margolyes and Garard Green.

Dorothy L Sayers, Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), , Ian Carmichael, Peter Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Nine Tailors

The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations, and Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Lord Peter Wimsey, man about town and amateur sleuth, and his man Bunter, are drawn into a series of intriguing incidents after being stranded in the remote village of Fenchurch St. Paul. What is the identity of the grotesquely disfigured corpse found in the churchyard? Who murdered him and why? Perhaps the Fenchurch bells hold their own answers to the mystery... Starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, this Radio 4 dramatisation was first broadcast as a weekly serial in 1980.Duration 3:15

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), , Ian Carmichael, John Westbrook, Peter Jones, Philip Latham (Narrator)

Audiobook