Audiobooks narrated by Fenella Woolgar

The Grand Tour: Letters from the British Empire Expedition 1922

Unpublished for 90 years, Agatha Christie’s extensive and evocative letters from her year-long round-the-world trip to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America as part of the British trade mission for the famous 1924 Empire Exhibition. In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the British Empire with her husband as part of a trade mission to promote the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition. Leaving her two-year-old daughter behind with her sister, Agatha set sail at the end of January and did not return until December, but she kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing in detail the exotic places and people she encountered as the mission travelled through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada. The extensive and previously unpublished letters are accompanied by some of the original letters and memorabilia collected by Agatha on her trip. Edited and introduced by Agatha Christie’s grandson, Matthew Prichard, this unique travelogue reveals a new side to Agatha Christie, demonstrating how her appetite for exotic plots and locations for her books began with this eye-opening trip, which took place just after only her second novel had been published (the first leg of the tour to South Africa is very clearly the inspiration for the book she wrote immediately afterwards, The Man in the Brown Suit). The letters are full of tales of seasickness and sunburn, motor trips and surf boarding, and encounters with welcoming locals and overbearing Colonials. The Grand Tour is a book steeped in history, sure to fascinate anyone interested in the lost world of the 1920s. Coming from the pen of Britain’s biggest literary export and the world’s most widely translated author, it is also a fitting tribute to Agatha Christie and is sure to fascinate her legions of worldwide fans.

Agatha Christie (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Dangerous Women: The compelling and beautifully written mystery about friendship, secrets and redemp

Brought to you by Penguin. The devastating and thought-provoking tale about female anger, subservience and, ultimately, strength, inspired by a true story London, 1841. Two hundred Englishwomen file aboard the RAJAH, the ship that will take them on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world. They're daughters, sisters, mothers - and convicts. Transported for petty crimes. Except one of their number is a secret killer, fleeing justice. When a woman is mortally wounded, the hunt is on for the culprit. But who would attack one of their own, and why? Based on a true story, Dangerous Women is a sweeping tale of confinement, loss, love and, above all, hope in the unlikeliest of places. © Hope Adams 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Hope Adams (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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The Chocolate Box: A Hercule Poirot Short Story

A classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time on audio. Sitting in front of a fire, Hastings listens as Poirot recounts his greatest failure. When a wealthy French deputy dies, everyone believes it is from natural causes. Poirot is on vacation from the Belgian police when a young lady comes to him convinced the man was poisoned. She creates a guise for him to enter the house as a journalist to investigate…

Agatha Christie (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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A Woman's Courage

Book 3 in the heartwarming wartime saga in the Home Fires series, perfect for fans of Rosie Clarke and Annie Groves. In the midst of World War II, the members of one village WI fight harder than ever to help the war effort . . . But behind closed doors, each is fighting a more personal battle. Pat Simms is reeling from her own role in her abusive husband's death, and the new freedom before her is daunting. Sarah Collingborne is struggling with the absence of her husband, who is stranded in a POW camp abroad, and trying her best to fill his treasured place in the village. Meanwhile, Teresa Lucas is anxious about her future as a parent, and her friend Alison Scotlock is on the verge of starting a new relationship. And Miriam Brindsley's good luck might be about to change . . . Grieving for men already lost and anxious for those still away fighting, the women of Great Paxford must rely on each other. Amidst the complexities of broken relationships, loss and friendship, this group of very different women must work together to find a way through.

Maria Malone, S. Block (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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MIDWINTER MURDER: Fireside Mysteries from the Queen of Crime

An all-new collection of winter-themed mysteries from the master of the genre, just in time for the festive period. There's a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter… It's the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fireplace with this winter-themed collection from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This compendium of short stories, some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect gift for mystery lovers. INCLUDES THE STORIES: The Chocolate Box A Christmas Tragedy The Coming of Mr Quin The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest The Clergyman’s Daughter The Plymouth Express Problem at Pollensa Bay Sanctuary The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge The World’s End The Manhood of Edward Robinson Christmas Adventure

Agatha Christie (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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The M. R. James BBC Radio Collection: Dramatisations and readings of his classic ghost stories

Spine-tingling stories by M. R. James, plus a chilling original drama and two bonus programmes about his life and work M. R. James was the master of the uncanny. His classic supernatural stories have haunted readers for over a century, and been adapted countless times for radio, TV and film. This collection features dramatisations of twelve of his most popular stories – The Mezzotint; Casting the Runes; The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral; A Warning to the Curious; Rats; Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come To You, My Lad; The Tractate Middoth; Lost Hearts; The Rose Garden; Number 13; Martin’s Close and Count Magnus. Among the star-studded casts are Mark Gatiss, Derek Jacobi, James D’Arcy, Anton Lesser, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Donald Wolfit. Also included are a trio of readings by Benjamin Whitrow: Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook; A School Story and The Haunted Dolls’ House. Neil Brand’s disturbing drama The Haunting of M. R. James, starring Mark Gatiss and Fenella Woolgar, sees horrific events from James’s own stories echoed in reality. The life of M. R. James is discussed by Muriel Gray and Christopher Frayling in an episode of biography series Great Lives, presented by Humphrey Carpenter. Finally, in a fascinating documentary – The Ghosts of M.R. James – Michell Raper examines the author’s life and work, with readings from several of his stories. Running Order: The Mezzotint Casting the Runes The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral A Warning to the Curious Rats Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come To You, My Lad The Tractate Middoth Lost Hearts The Rose Garden Number 13 Canon Alberic's Scrapbook A School Story The Haunted Doll's House Martin's Close Count Magnus The Haunting of M. R. James Great Lives: M. R. James The Ghosts of M. R. James

M.R. James (Author), Anton Lesser, Derek Jacobi, Fenella Woolgar, James D'arcy, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Mark Gatiss (Narrator)

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A Woman's War

S. Block (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural by Agatha Christie

From the Queen of Crime, the first time all of her spookiest and most macabre stories have been collected in one volume. 'From behind the curtains there still sounded the terrible high long-drawn scream - such a scream as Raoul had never heard. It died away with a horrible kind of gurgle. Then there came the thud of a body falling...' For lovers of the supernatural and the macabre comes this collection of ghostly and chilling tales from Agatha Christie. Acknowledged the world over as the undisputed Queen of Crime, in fact she dabbled in her early writing career with mysteries of a more unearthly kind - stories featuring fantastic psychic visions, spectres looming in the shadows, encounters with deities, eerie messages from the Other Side, even a man who switches bodies with a cat... This haunting compendium gathers together all of Christie's spookiest and most macabre short stories, some featuring her timeless detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Finally together in one volume, it shines a light on the darker side of Agatha Christie, one that she herself relished, identifying ten of them as 'my own favourite stories written soon after The Mysterious Affair at Styles, some before that'. Contains 20 stories: The Last Séance In a Glass Darkly The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb SOS The Fourth Man The Idol House of Astarte The Gipsy Philomel Cottage The Dream The Lamp Wireless The Mystery of the Blue Jar The Blue Geranium The Wife of the Kenite The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael The Call of Wings The Red Signal The Flock of Geryon The Dressmaker's Doll The Hound of Death 'Reading a perfectly plotted Agatha Christie is like crunching into a perfect apple: pure, crisp, absolute satisfaction.' TANA FRENCH

Agatha Christie (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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A Single Thread

If she was to make a mark on the world, she would have to do so in another way... 'Bittersweet ... dazzling' Guardian 'Deeply pleasurable ... the ending made me cry' The Times 'Told with a wealth of detail and narrative intensity' Penelope Lively It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a 'surplus woman' unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. A new life awaits her in Winchester. Yes, it is one of draughty boarding-houses and sidelong glances at her naked ring finger from younger colleagues; but it is also a life gleaming with independence and opportunity. Violet falls in with the broderers, a disparate group of women charged with embroidering kneelers for the Cathedral, and is soon entwined in their lives and their secrets. As the almost unthinkable threat of a second Great War appears on the horizon Violet collects a few secrets of her own that could just change everything... Warm, vivid and beautifully orchestrated, A Single Thread reveals one of our finest modern writers at the peak of her powers.

Tracy Chevalier (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Blood, Sex and Money: A BBC Radio 4 serialisation of Zola's epic saga

Glenda Jackson stars in this award-winning BBC Radio series, inspired by literature's greatest ever whistleblower, Émile Zola, and his epic saga of the Rougon-Macquart family 'Unmissable' Daily Telegraph First published between 1870 and 1893, Émile Zola's 20-book cycle chronicling four generations of the Rougon-Macquarts was a shocking exposé of the decadence, degradation and moral decay of 19th-century France. It included some of his greatest novels, among them his masterpiece, Germinal. These innovative, ambitious dramas, first broadcast on Radio 4 over 24 hours in 2015-16, is a radical reimagining of Zola's classic series, introducing us to 104-year-old matriarch, Dide, imprisoned in an asylum in southern France. Trapped, but omniscient, she broods over her 'family of wolves'. As a young woman, she gave birth to two dynasties that exemplified French society. One legitimate - rich, powerful, obsessive and corrupt. The other illegitimate - poor, vulnerable, weak and depraved. In these three seasons, themed around blood, sex and money, we come to know the members of her extended family intimately - the good, the bad and the misguided. As we follow their highs and lows, we are taken deep into the heart of France's 'Second Empire' and drawn into the tragic, farcical reign of Napoleon III as it marches forward towards a modern, industrialised society. This groundbreaking series won Best Drama at the BBC Radio and Music Awards 2016 and Best Adaptation at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2017, and boasts a star cast including Robert Lindsay, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Holliday Grainger, Samuel West, Anna Maxwell Martin, Paul McGann, Georgina Campbell, Jack Lowden and Alison Steadman. Also included is a 30-minute bonus programme, The Life and Work of Émile Zola, in which Glenda Jackson travels to Paris to discover how Zola's experience and the physical and cultural landscape in which he lived influenced his great novels.

Emile Zola (Author), Alison Steadman, Angela Griffin, Anna Maxwell Martin, David Schofield, Emma Rigby, Fenella Woolgar, Georgina Campbell, Glenda Jackson, Holliday Grainger, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Paul Mcgann, Robert Lindsay, Samuel West (Narrator)

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The Stuarts: The epic BBC Radio 4 Drama

Eleven BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramas telling the stories of Mary Queen of Scots and the Stuart royals Under the Stuarts, Britain entered the modern world. But with great change came turmoil, and for 111 years, the Stuart monarchs faced dynastic struggles, religious conflict, the rise of parliamentary democracy - and civil war. These dramas chart that turbulent epoch through its royal family, from Mary, Queen of Scots to the 'last Stuart', Bonnie Prince Charlie's daughter Charlotte. It Came In with a Lass - 1561. Arriving in mist-shrouded Scotland, Queen Mary must quickly distinguish her friends from her enemies. Starring Jeany Spark as Mary. To Make the Plough Go Before the Horse - James I's life and reign told through his relationships, from his first love, Esme to his last favourite, George Villiers. Starring Bill Paterson as James I and VI. A World of Fools and Knaves - Henrietta Maria, Charles I's Catholic queen, watches her husband fail to keep hold of the reins of government. Starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as Charles I. This War Without an Enemy - Only on the morning of his execution can Charles I begin to understand the events that brought him to to the scaffold. Starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as Charles I. Charles II, Part One: Through the World in Various Fortune - When news of Oliver Cromwell's death reaches Brussels, the exiled Charles II plots his return. Starring Jamie Parker as Charles II. Charles II, Part Two: The Long Lease of Pleasant Days- Charles II plots to confound parliamentary reformers and secure the throne for his brother. Starring Pip Torrens as Charles II. James II: The Storms of this Deceitful World- 1688. After just four years as King, James II flees England in the Glorious Revolution. How did it all go so wrong? Starring James Fleet as James II. William III and Mary II: To Have and To Hold- Dutch William marries his Stuart cousin for reasons of politics, not passion - but their partnership proves crucial when it comes to ruling England. Starring Mark Edel-Hunt as William III and Elaine Cassidy as Mary. Queen Anne: Myself Alone- Queen Anne must abandon long-held allegiances to command parliament's loyalty and rule with authority. Starring Fenella Woolgar as Queen Anne. Bonnie Prince Charlie: Who Dares to Be Free- Charles Edward Stuart, the 'Young Pretender', risks everything for the Stuart name. Starring Blake Ritson as Charles. Charlotte Stuart: The Last Stuart - Is Charlotte Stuart as driven as her predecessors, or the last victim of the Stuart curse? Starring Kate O'Flynn as Charlotte. Produced and directed by Jessica Dromgoole, Sasha Yevtushenko, Marc Beeby and Gemma Jenkins.

Mike Walker (Author), Anton Lesser, Bill Paterson, Blake Ritson, Brian Cox, Fenella Woolgar, James Fleet, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Kate O'flynn, Pip Torrens (Narrator)

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The Virginia Woolf BBC Radio Drama Collection: Seven full-cast dramatisations

The collected BBC radio adaptations of Virginia Woolf's pioneering modernist novels The Voyage Out A sea voyage to South America turns into a journey of self-discovery for naïve Rachel Vinrace. Night and Day In pre-First World War London, aristocrat Katharine Hilbery and suffragette Mary Datchet have their assumptions about love challenged. Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf's masterpiece charts one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares to host an important party. To the Lighthouse Centring around a summer home on Skye, Virginia Woolf's landmark tale follows the Ramsay family and their guests before and after World War I. Orlando The adventures of time-travelling, gender-swapping poet Orlando, who is born male in Elizabethan England and dies female over 300 years later. The Waves In this radical 'play-poem', six characters look back on their childhood and first forays into adulthood, and reflect on the loss of their friend Percival. Between the Acts An eccentric artist devises a pageant celebrating English history - but it is 1939, and the shadow of war hangs over England's present. Among the stars of these seven poignant, penetrating dramatisations are Bertie Carvel, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Dervla Kirwan, John Lynch, Geraldine James, Anna Massey and Don Warrington.

Virginia Woolf (Author), , Fenella Woolgar, Juliet Stevenson, Kristen Scott-Thomas, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Laura Fraser, Robert Glenister, Vanessa Redgrave (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Fenella Woolgar