Audiobooks by William Boyd

Brought to you by Penguin. Soldier. Farmer. Felon. Writer. Father. Lover. One man, many lives. Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days. As he travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover, he experiences all the vicissitudes of life and, through the accelerating turbulence of the nineteenth century, he discovers who he truly is. This is the romance of life itself, and the beating heart of The Romantic. From one of Britain's best-loved and bestselling writers comes an intimate yet panoramic novel set across the nineteenth century. ***PRAISE FOR WILLIAM BOYD*** 'There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd Novel' Sunday Times 'One of our best contemporary storytellers' Spectator 'Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation' Sebastian Faulks © William Boyd 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

William Boyd (Author), Kobna Holbrook-Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Trio

Brought to you by Penguin. A producer. A novelist. An actress. It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. There are riots in Paris and the Vietnam War is out of control. While the world is reeling our three characters are involved in making a Swingin' Sixties movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. Elfrida is drowning her writer's block in vodka; Talbot, coping with the daily dysfuntion of making a film, is hiding something in a secret apartment; and the glamorous Anny is wondering why the CIA is suddenly so interested in her. But the show must go on and, as it does, the trio's private worlds begin to take over their public ones. Pressures build inexorably - someone's going to crack. Or maybe they all will. From one of Britain's best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel that asks the vital questions: what makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't? PRAISE FOR WILLIAM BOYD 'The ultimate in immersive fiction . . . magnificent' Sunday Times 'A finely judged performance: a deft and resonant alchemy of fact and fiction, of literary myth and imagination' Guardian on Love is Blind 'William Boyd has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries' Daily Telegraph 'Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation' Sebastian Faulks © William Boyd 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), Hannah Arterton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sweet Caress

Brought to you by Penguin. Amory's first memory is of her father doing a handstand. She has memories of him returning on leave during the First World War. But his absences, both actual and emotional, are what she chiefly remembers. It is her photographer uncle Greville who supplies the emotional bond she needs, and, when he gives her a camera and some rudimentary lessons in photography, unleashes a passion that will irrevocably shape her future. A spell at boarding school ends abruptly and Amory begins an apprenticeship with Greville in London, living in his flat in Kensington, earning two pounds a week photographing socialites for fashionable magazines. But Amory is hungry for more and her search for life, love and artistic expression will take her to the demi monde of Berlin of the late 1920s, to New York of the 1930s, to the Blackshirt riots in London and to France in the Second World War where she becomes one of the first women war photographers. Her desire for experience will lead Amory to further wars, to lovers, husbands and children as she continues to pursue her dreams and battle her demons. In this enthralling story of a life fully lived, William Boyd has created a sweeping panorama of some of the most defining moments of modern history, told through the camera lens of one unforgettable woman, Amory Clay. It is his greatest achievement to date. © William Boyd 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Armadillo

Brought to you by Penguin. One winter morning, Lorimer Black - young, good-looking, but with a somewhat troubled expression - goes to keep a perfectly routine business appointment and finds a hanged man. A bad start to the day, by anyone's standards, and an ominous portent. For Lorimer works in the only-slightly corrupt business of financial adjusting, and he is about to learn that it is much uglier - and even more crooked - than he ever imagined. Suddenly, he's being unfairly blamed for all kinds of irregularities. Next, his life is threatened. And, lastly, he's coming to realise that the life he has led till now - the one someone wants to rub out - is one big fat lie . . . 'Marvellously paced and ingeniously plotted. A real page-turner' Observer 'A joy to read: easy to get into, addictively plotted and beautifully written' Daily Mail 'A novel that is truly comic, and, like all true comedy, also disturbing' Scotsman 'A pleasure to read' Independent on Sunday © William Boyd 1998 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), John Sackville (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ordinary Thunderstorms

Brought to you by Penguin. One May evening in London, as a result of a chance encounter and a split-second decision, the young climatologist Adam Kindred loses everything - home, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, money - never to get them back. With the police and a hit man in merciless pursuit, Adam has no choice but to go underground, joining the ranks of the disappeared, struggling to understand how his life has unravelled so spectacularly. His journey of discovery will take him along the Thames from Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End. On the way he encounters aristocrats, priests, prostitutes and a policewoman - but will he ever find himself again? © William Boyd 2009 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), John Heffernan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Waiting for Sunrise

Brought to you by Penguin. Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, sits in the waiting room of the city's preeminent psychiatrist as he anxiously ponders the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis. When the enigmatic, intensely beautiful Hettie Bull walks in, Lysander is immediately drawn to her, unaware of how destructive the consequences of their subsequent affair will be. One year later, home in London, Lysander finds himself entangled in the dangerous web of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies that is slowly, steadily, permeating every corner of his life... © William Boyd 2012 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), Jack Rowan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brazzaville Beach

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE On Brazzaville Beach, on the edge of Africa, Hope Clearwater ponders the strange circumstances that led her to leave her husband John, and his mathematical obsessions, in England and venture to Africa to help world-renowned scientist Eugene Mallabar with his studies of wild chimps. But the more Hope studies Mallabar, the more she comes to believe that something isn't right. That behind Mallabar, and his obsessive work, there lies another, more sinister truth: one that might also help explain Hope's reasons for leaving England . . . 'A brilliant storyteller . . . a book which stretches, tantalizes and delights' Financial Times 'A most extraordinary parable about mankind. Quite unlike anything else I have read' Sunday Express 'Brilliant, daring. A gripping and compulsive story' Herald 'Hilarious and edgy' Sunday Times © William Boyd 1990 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Blue Afternoon

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD A quest for secrets in the blue afternoon . . . Los Angeles, 1936. Kay Fischer, a young and ambitious architect, is being followed by an old man. When confronted, he explains that his name is Salvador Carriscant - and that he is her father. In a matter of weeks Kay will join Salvador on an extraordinary journey as they delve back into his past to not only learn the truth behind her own birth, but also to discover the whereabouts of a woman long thought dead - and to uncover the identity of a killer. 'Achingly memorable' The Times 'The finest storyteller of his generation' Daily Telegraph 'An extraordinary story' John Mortimer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year 'Terrific' Jeremy Paxman, Independent, Books of the Year 'Richly entertaining' Independent 'A brilliant achievement' Time Out © William Boyd 1993 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), Kate Handford (Narrator)

Audiobook

Any Human Heart

Brought to you by Penguin. Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary, and Logan Mountstuart's - stretching across the twentieth century - is a rich tapestry of both. As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Virginia Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war, and as an art-dealer in '60s New York, Logan mixes with the men and women who shape his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness. Here, then, is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart. Superb, wonderful, enjoyable' Guardian 'Full of delights' The Times 'A work of astonishing ventriloquistic virtuosity... brilliant' Sunday Telegraph 'Wise, profound and moving' William Sutcliffe, Independent on Sunday 'A terrific journey through the 20th century. Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable' Guardian 'Astounding. One of Boyd's greatest achievements... A pleasure' Mail on Sunday 'Generous, witty, sneakily profound' Evening Standard 'The pleasures are endless... Supremely entertaining' Washington Post 'A fabulous book all about life. I think of Any Human Heart often - the sign of a truly great book' Fi Glover, New Statesman © William Boyd 2002 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

William Boyd (Author), Darren Boyd (Narrator)

Audiobook

Love Is Blind: A novel

The Whitbread Award-winning author of A Good Man in Africa and the Costa Award-winning Restless now gives us a sweeping new novel that unfolds across fin-de-siècle Europe as it tells a story of ineffable passions--familial, artistic, romantic--and their power to shape, and destroy, a life. Brodie Moncur is a brilliant piano tuner, as brilliant in his own way as John Kilbarron--'The Irish Liszt'--the pianist Brodie accompanies on all of his tours from Paris to Saint Petersburg, as essential to Kilbarron as the pianist's own hands. It is a luxurious life, and a level of success Brodie could hardly have dreamed of growing up in a remote Scottish village, in a household ruled by a tyrannical father. But Brodie would gladly give it all up for the love of the Russian soprano Lika Blum: beautiful, worldly, seductive--and consort to Kilbarron. And though seemingly doomed from the start, Brodie's passion for her only grows as their lives become increasingly more intertwined, more secretive, and, finally, more dangerous--what Brodie doesn't know about Lika, and about her connection to Kilbarron and his sinister brother, Malachi, eventually testing not only his love for her but his ability, and will, to survive.

William Boyd (Author), Roy Mcmillan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Love is Blind

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Love is Blind by William Boyd. Love is Blind is William Boyd's sweeping, heart-stopping new novel - set at the end of the 19th century, it follows the fortunes of Brodie Moncur, a young Scottish musician, about to embark on the story of his life. When Brodie is offered a job in Paris, he seizes the chance to flee Edinburgh and his tyrannical clergyman father, and begin a wildly different new chapter in his life. In Paris, a fateful encounter with a famous pianist irrevocably changes his future - and sparks an obsessive love affair with a beautiful Russian soprano, Lika Blum. Moving from Paris to St Petersburg to Edinburgh and back again, Brodie's love for Lika and its dangerous consequences pursue him around Europe and beyond, during an era of overwhelming change as the 19th century becomes the 20th. Love is Blind is a tale of dizzying passion and brutal revenge; of artistic endeavour and the illusions it creates; of all the possibilities that life can offer, and how cruelly they can be snatched away. At once an intimate portrait of one man's life and an expansive exploration of the beginning of the 20th century, Love is Blind is a masterly new novel from one of Britain's best loved storytellers.

William Boyd (Author), Roy Mcmillan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth written and read by William Boyd. A philandering art dealer tries to give up casual love affairs - seeking only passionate kisses as a substitute. A man recounts his personal history through the things he has stolen from others throughout his life. A couple chart the journey of their five year relationship backwards, from awkward reunion to lovelorn first encounter. And, at the heart of the book, a 24-year old young woman, Bethany Mellmoth, embarks on a year-long journey of wishful and tentative self-discovery. The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth depicts the random encounters that bring the past bubbling to the surface; the impulsive decisions that irrevocably shape a life; and the endless hesitations and loss-of-nerve that wickedly complicate it. These funny, surprising and moving stories are a resounding confirmation of Boyd's powers as one of our most original and compelling storytellers.

William Boyd (Author), William Boyd (Narrator)

Audiobook