Audiobooks narrated by Dermot Crowley

Franz Kafka: The Trial, Metamorphosis, Amerika & more: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama collection

"Kafka’s finest works adapted for BBC radio – plus a biographical play, three discussion pieces and the award-winning Kafka The Musical A lawyer by day, Franz Kafka spent his nights writing visionary stories and novels exploring bureaucracy, power and alienation – iconic fiction that gave the world the adjective ‘Kafkaesque’. This BBC anthology showcases his most famous works. Metamorphosis tells the tale of Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Starring Tom Basden, this Radio 4 production gives Kafka’s classic a modern twist with a darkly comic edge. In The Trial, a protagonist known only as ‘K’ is plunged into a nightmare world when he is accused of an unknown crime. Iwan Rheon leads an all-star cast including Phil Davis and Mark Heap. Set in 1911, Kafka’s debut novel The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika) features a young man from Prague, sent away to the New World after an indiscretion with a girl. Read by Carl Prekopp, Tiny Tales offers an exquisite study in restlessness, while Dermot Crowley narrates the short story ‘A Country Doctor’. Also included is Franz and Felice, a biographical play, and the Kafkaesque drama Kafka: The Musical, in which the author finds he has been cast to play himself in a show about his own life. David Tennant stars in this award-winning Radio 3 production. Three fascinating documentary programmes round off our collection, with discussions pieces on the man and the work. First published 1915 (Metamorphosis), 1916 (‘A Country Doctor’), 1925 (The Trial), 1927 (Amerika) © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Franz Kafka (Author), Carl Prekopp, David Tennant, Dermot Crowley, Full Cast, Iwan Rheon, Mark Heap, Mike Gwilym, Miriam Margolyes, Nina Wadia, Tim Key, Tom Basden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Brian Friel: A BBC Radio Drama Collection: Translations, Faith Healer & More

"Dramatisations and short stories by the award-winning playwright - plus bonus programmes Known as the 'Irish Chekhov', Brian Friel was one of the most renowned dramatists of his generation, producing over 30 plays in a career spanning six decades. Included here are some of his best-known works, as well as mesmerising radio documentaries featuring the author himself, in his own words. Beginning with his modern classic about language and power, Translations, this collection goes on to showcase two further masterpieces: Faith Healer (voted one of the 100 most important plays of the 20th Century by the National Theatre) and the play that launched Friel to international acclaim, Philadelphia, Here I Come! With settings ranging from the 1830s to the present day, all are centred around the small fictional town of Ballybeg, and share key themes including the stories we tell ourselves, the nature of truth and the unreliability of memory. Among the stellar casts are Samuel Barnett, Mark Bazeley, Dermot Crowley, Lia Williams, Phil Daniels and Donal Donnelly. Also featured are five short stories: 'The Skelper', 'My True Kinsman', 'The Death of a Scientific Humanist', 'The Gold in the Sea' and 'Everything Neat and Tidy', read by Adrian Dunbar. We conclude with two talks by Brian Friel - the 'fragment of autobiography' Self Portrait and The Green Years, a lyrical account of his childhood in Derry - and the fascinating documentary Staging Ireland, telling the story of the radical Derry theatre company Field Day, founded by Friel and Stephen Rea with the aim of challenging their nation's view of itself. Production credits Written by Brian Friel Text copyright © Brian Friel 1959 ('The Skelper'), 1961 ('My True Kinsman'), 1964 (Philadelphia, Here I Come!, 'The Death of a Scientific Humanist'), 1965 ('Everything Nice and Tidy'), 1966 ('The Gold in the Sea'), 1979 (Faith Healer), 1980 (Translations) All rights reserved Translations Cast: Samuel Barnett, Mark Bazeley, John Paul Connolly, Dermot Crowley, Roisin Gallagher, David Ireland, Aoife McMahon, Gerard McSorley, Eugene O'Hare, Eileen Walsh Adapted by Michael Duke. Directed by Kirsty Williams First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4 September 2010 Faith Healer Frank - Owen Roe Grace - Lia Williams Teddy - Phil Daniels Directed by Peter Kavanagh. First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 12 September 2010 Philadelphia, Here I Come! Cast: Donal Donnelly, Gertrude Russell, J G Devlin, Kate Binchy, Harold Goldblatt, Patrick Magee, Doreen Hepburn, Tommy Duggan, Ronald Wilson, Michael Stuart, Denys Hawthorne, Maurie Taylor, Patrick McAlinney Produced by Ronald Mason. First broadcast BBC Network Three, 25 February 1965 Brian Friel Stories: The Skelper, My True Kinsman, Everything Neat and Tidy, The Gold in the Sea, The Death of a Scientific Humanist Read by Adrian Dunbar. Produced by Heather Larmour First broadcast BBC Radio 4 Extra, 11 March 2013, 12 March 2013, 13 March 2013, 14 March 2013, 15 March 2013 Brian Friel: Self Portrait With Brian Friel First broadcast BBC Radio Ulster, 1971 The Green Years With Brian Friel First broadcast Northern Ireland Home Service, 30 April 1964 Staging Ireland Presented by Robbie Meredith With Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin, Stephen Rea and Seamus Deane First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5 June 2007 ©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Brian Friel (Author), Adrian Dunbar, Aiofe Mcmahon, Dermot Crowley, Full Cast, Lia Williams, Mark Bazeley, Phil Daniels, Samuel Barnett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Posters of the Moulin Rouge: Eight BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramas based on the characters of Toulouse-

"Toulouse-Lautrec's iconic Parisian poster stars come to life in these full-cast dramas, set in 19th-century Montmartre 1889, Paris. When Charles Zidler's extravagant pleasure palace, the Moulin Rouge, opens in bohemian Montmartre, he commissions local artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to create a series of posters to promote it. The striking lithographs Henri produces will make his name - and launch the careers of the performers he portrayed. This sparkling collection of plays introduces us to eight of those legendary artistes, whose lives were as vivid as Lautrec's paint. It opens with Yvette Guilbert, the story of a singer whose dreams of wealth and fame lead her to a brand new cabaret on Boulevard de Clichy.... In The Boneless Wonder, we meet can-can dancer Valentin Renaudin. Merely a silhouette in Toulouse-Lautrec's poster, what is he in real life? La Goulue tells the tale of his famous partner, Louise Weber, whose soubriquet reflects her love of food and life. And in Jane Avril, we hear about Henri's muse, whose nickname 'Crazy Jane' didn't simply refer to her exuberant dancing. May Belfort explores the Irish singer turned lady of the night, who relied more on her beauty than her voice. In Footitt and Chocolat, a circus double act is in danger of drifting apart; while in Casque d'Or, a group of passionate revolutionaries make a fatal last stand. Finally, Aristide Bruant sees the socialist club owner becoming a fashionable success - against all his intentions. He needs to find a new direction: as does Yvette Guilbert... Created by award-winning writer John Peacock, these dazzling dramas will transport you to Belle Époque Paris, in all its glamour and decadence. The star casts include Julie Covington as Yvette Guilbert, Frances Barber as La Goulue, Bonnie Langford as May Belfort, Bernard Hill as Aristide Bruant and Miranda Richardson as Marie Briand. Written by John Peacock Directed by Jane Morgan Music by Stephen Warbeck Technical presentation: David Greenwood, assisted by Anne Bunting and Colin Guthrie © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

John Peacock (Author), Angela Pleasence, Bernard Hill, Bonnie Langford, Clarence Smith, Dermot Crowley, Frances Barber, Full Cast, Julie Covington, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Thorne (Narrator)

Audiobook

Our Little Cruelties

"Brought to you by Penguin. 'Liz Nugent is a force to be reckoned with' Lisa Jewell 'Liz Nugent has a gift for filling us with a terrible fascination for truly horrible people' Val McDermid 'MAGNIFICENT. Her best yet, and that's really saying something' Marian Keyes Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin. Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women ... They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead. But which brother killed him? 'What a terrific storyteller Liz Nugent is! Brilliantly structured, fluently told, rich in unsettling incident and pulsing with dark, tumultuous energy ... her best book yet' Irish Times 'An uncanny ability to get under the skin of characters ... nobody is a mere cliché in Nugent's clear, propulsive writing' Sunday Times 'Wonderful ... characters so well drawn it's hair-raising. Keeps you gripped to the very last line' Joe Duffy 'A dark jewel of a novel - finely observed, swift and exciting' AJ Finn © Liz Nugent 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Liz Nugent (Author), Dermot Crowley, Mary-Lou Mccarthy, Paul Hickey, Sam O'mahony, Stephen Hogan (Narrator)

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This is Happiness

"Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish parish unaltered in a thousand years. For one thing, the rain is stopping. Nobody remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard is a condition of living. But now - just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of the electricity - the rain clouds are lifting. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world. Harking back to a simpler time, This Is Happiness is a tender portrait of a community - its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs - and a coming-of-age tale like no other. Luminous and lyrical, yet anchored by roots running deep into the earthy and everyday, it is about the power of stories: their invisible currents that run through all we do, writing and rewriting us, and the transforming light that they throw onto our world."

Niall Williams (Author), Dermot Crowley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Smart Teams: How to Work Better Together

"Communicate, congregate, and collaborate more effectively than ever Smart Teams will help your team to go beyond personal productivity to enhance team productivity. Building on the concepts presented in Smart Work, which focuses on personal productivity, this book shows you how to turn unproductive team behaviors that create friction into 'superproductive' behaviors that promote flow. Productivity is, at its core, a leadership issue—and this book provides practical guidelines that help you build a culture where productivity thrives. Working together can be a drag—literally. Email noise, unproductive meetings, and poorly organized projects can stifle creativity and disrupt everyone's workflow. But by creating team agreements that raise awareness of the negative impact of our behaviors, you build the desire and capability to change. This book is packed with tips, guidelines, and expert insights for leaders and managers at any level. People want their work to matter, they want to make an impact, and they want to do it all with a healthy work-life balance—productivity is the key to making it all happen. Smart Teams shows you how to implement the culture shift that will allow your team to flourish."

Dermot Crowley (Author), Dermot Crowley (Narrator)

Audiobook

How It Is

"How It Is, a landmark in 20th century literature, is one of the most challenging of Samuel Beckett's early novels. He published it first in French in 1961 and then in his own translation in 1964. He explained in a letter that it was the outpouring of a ''man' lying panting in the mud and dark murmuring his 'life' as he hears it obscurely uttered by a voice inside him.... The noise of his panting fills his ears and it is only when this abates that he can catch and murmur forth a fragment of what is being stated within....' It is written in short paragraphs without punctuation. Fragments of expression pour out, of memories, intentions, emotions. It is testing to read on the page, but in this extraordinary recording by Dermot Crowley, How It Is becomes more accessible and comprehensible than ever before. It is, from the start, mesmerizing, and as the character of the protagonist emerges through his words, moments of aggression, of tenderness, of loss and hopelessness become increasingly affecting. The novel is divided into three parts, as the opening paragraph indicates: 'How it was I quote before Pim with Pim after Pim how it is three parts I say it as I hear it [Paragraph] voice once without quaqua on all sides then in me when the panting stops tell me again finish telling me/invocation.'"

Samuel Beckett (Author), Dermot Crowley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Watt

"Written in Roussillon during World War Two, while Samuel Beckett was hiding from the Gestapo, Watt was first published in 1953. Beckett acknowledged that this comic novel unlike any other 'has its place in the series' - those masterpieces running from Murphy to the Trilogy, Waiting for Godot and beyond. It shares their sense of a world in crisis, their profound awareness of the paradoxes of being, and their distrust of the rational universe. Watt tells the tale of Mr Knott's servant and his attempts to get to know his master. Watt's mistake is to derive the essence of his master from the accidentals of his being, and his painstakingly logical attempts to 'know' ultimately consign him to the asylum. Itself a critique of error, Watt has previously appeared in editions that are littered with mistakes, both major and minor. The new Faber edition offers for the first time a corrected text based on a scholarly appraisal of the manuscripts and textual history. Watt is at times extremely funny, bizarre, allusive and richly poetic. Though 'early' Beckett, the novel shows the author to be a remarkable virtuoso, investing plot and pace with classical, intellectual and earthy content style. Dermot Crowley proves himself a towering Beckett performer, matching clarity with flair; and with its musical surprises (arranged and conducted by Roger Marsh), the recording shows that, once again, a key Becket novel comes to life unforgettably in the audiobook medium."

Samuel Beckett (Author), Dermot Crowley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Land of Men: 'Wind, Sand and Stars '

"Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is known universally for the gentle charm of Le Petit Prince, but it is this book, Land of Men - known originally in English as Wind, Sand and Stars - which is his masterpiece. First published in 1939, it documents Saint-Exupéry's life as a pilot in the pioneering days of long-distance flying and in particular his experiences as a pilot transporting mail across countries, across continents. These courageous pilots took their lives in their hands each time they set out to deliver the mail. It was extremely hazardous, for the aeroplanes were unreliable, precise meteorology was in its infancy, radio communication and maps were relatively primitive and new and long routes were being pioneered over dangerous terrain of all kinds - across the Sahara, over the Andes, even just across the Mediterranean. But in Land of Men, Saint-Exupéry doesn't just relate tales of derring-do in the clouds, the storms, or what it is like to be lost over thousands of featureless miles above sea or sand. He does speak of the dangers, the risks from bandits and dissidents when landing in a tiny desert outpost and the struggles to keep these basic machines in the air when faced with buffeting winds or flying through dense cloud for hours, without one reassuring sight of a landmark. He recounts his crash in the Sahara, his days of walking without water and his remarkable survival. But all this action is underpinned by reflection, by poetic expression, by camaraderie and by an inner quiet born of those hours spent high in the sky - with the wind, the sand and the stars. It is poignant also, because Saint-Exupéry himself disappeared one day five years after the book's publication, flying over the Mediterranean. All this, and a rich humanity, makes this a great, great book. It has been an international favourite since it first appeared and is now presented in Bill Homewood's vibrant new translation of Terre des Hommes, more faithful to and representative of Saint-Exupéry's original. This recording, narrated with intimacy and care by Nicholas Boulton, will be one you will never forget."

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Author), Dermot Crowley (Narrator)

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Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory

"Keggie Carew grew up in the gravitational field of an unorthodox father who lived on his wits and dazzling charm. As his memory begins to fail, she embarks on a quest to unravel his story, and soon finds herself in a far more consuming place than she had bargained for. Tom Carew was a maverick, a left-handed stutterer, a law unto himself. As a member of an elite SOE unit he was parachuted behind enemy lines to raise guerrilla resistance in France, then Burma, in the Second World War. But his wartime exploits are only the start of it... Dadland is a manhunt. Keggie takes us on a spellbinding journey, in peace and war, into surprising and shady corners of history, her rackety English childhood, the poignant breakdown of her family, the corridors of dementia and beyond. As Keggie pieces Tom – and herself – back together again, she celebrates the technicolour life of an impossible, irresistible, unstoppable man. Foreword and afterword read by the author."

Keggie Carew (Author), Dermot Crowley, Keggie Carew, Pippa Haywood, Robert Bathurst, Tom Golding (Narrator)

Audiobook

Father Figure The Complete Series

"The complete series of the BBC Radio 2 family sitcom written by and starring Irish comedian Jason Byrne and co-starring Pauline McLynn, Lucy Montgomery, Dominic Applewhite, Dermot Crowley and Michael Smiley. Tom (played by Jason) starts a new life as a house husband looking after the kids and doing a few domestic chores. What could be simpler? Things, however, don't go well for Tom and he is soon on the run from the law, with multiple problems, including some stolen dogs."

Jason Byrne (Author), Dermot Crowley, Dominic Applewhite, Jason Byrne, Lucy Montgomery, Michael Smiley, Pauline Mclynn (Narrator)

Audiobook

Molloy

"Molloy was written by Samuel Beckett initially in French, only later translating it into English. It was published shortly after World War II and marked a new, mature writing style which was to dominate the remainder of his working life. Molloy is divided into two sections. In the first section, Molloy goes in search of his mother. In the second, he is pursued by Moran, an agent. Within this simple outline, spoken in the first person, is a remarkable novel, raising questions of being and aloneness that marks so much of Beckett's work, but richly comic as well. Beautifully written, it is one of the masterpieces of Irish literature. This is the world premiere recording. Written by a master dramatist, it is ideally suited to the audiobook medium."

Samuel Beckett (Author), Dermot Crowley, Sean Barrett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Dermot Crowley