Audiobooks narrated by George Blagden

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, read by George Blagden. The tender feelgood story of a man's journey around Japan with a streetcat. Translated by Philip Gabriel, a translator of Murakami. It's not the journey that counts, but who's at your side. Nana is on a road trip, but he is not sure where he is going. All that matters is that he can sit beside his beloved owner Satoru in the front seat of his silver van. Satoru is keen to visit three old friends from his youth, though Nana doesn't know why and Satoru won't say. Set against the backdrop of Japan's changing seasons and narrated with a rare gentleness and humour, Nana's story explores the wonder and thrill of life's unexpected detours. It is about the value of friendship and solitude, and knowing when to give and when to take. TRAVELLING CAT has already demonstrated its power to move thousands with a message of kindness and truth. It shows, above all, how acts of love, both great and small, can transform our lives. A WATERSONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2017 'Bewitching... as self-possessed and comforting as - well, a cat' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'A delightful tale of loyalty and friendship' JOHN BOYNE, IRISH TIMES

Hiro Arikawa (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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The Thief of Time

Brought to you by Penguin. Matthieu Zela has lived his life well. In fact, he's lived several lives well. Because Matthew Zela's life is characterised by one amazing fact: his body stopped ageing before the end of the eighteenth century. Starting in 1758, a young Matthieu flees Paris after witnessing his mother's brutal murder. His only companions are his younger brother Tomas and one true love, Dominique Sauvet. The story of his life takes us from the French Revolution to 1920s Hollywood, from the Great Exhibition to the Wall Street Crash, and by the end of the twentieth century, Matthieu has been an engineer, a rogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a financier, a lover to many, a cable TV executive and much more besides. Brilliantly weaving history and personal experience, this is a dazzling story of love, murder, missed chances, treachery - and redemption. © John Boyne 2011 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

John Boyne (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Tomorrow

A winter’s night, Venice, 1815. A 217-year-old dog is searching for his lost master.So begins the journey of Tomorrow, a dog who must travel through the courts and battlefields of Europe—and through the centuries—in search of the man who granted him immortality. His adventures take him to the London Frost Fair, the strange court of King Charles I, the wars of the Spanish succession, Versailles, the golden age of Amsterdam and to nineteenth-century Venice.His is a story of loyalty and determination, as Tomorrow befriends both animals and humans, falls in love (only once), marvels at the human ability to make music, despairs at their capacity for war and gains insight into both the strength and frailties of the human spirit. But Tomorrow’s journey is also a race against time. Danger stalks his path, and in the shadows lurks an old enemy. Tomorrow must find his master before their pursuer can reach him and his master disappears forever.A spellbinding story of hope in the face of despair, Tomorrow draws us into a century-spanning tale of humanity and the unbreakable bond between two souls. After all, what is lost can surely be found…

Damian Dibben (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Hidden in Plain Sight

Hidden in Plain Sight is the second brilliant and captivating novel featuring William Warwick by the master storyteller and bestselling author of the Clifton Chronicles, Jeffrey Archer. Newly promoted, Detective Sergeant William Warwick has been reassigned to the drugs squad. His first case: to investigate a notorious south London drug lord known as the Viper. But as William and his team close the net around a criminal network unlike any they have ever encountered, he is also faced with an old enemy, Miles Faulkner. It will take all of William’s cunning to devise a means to bring both men to justice; a trap neither will expect, one that is hidden in plain sight . . . Filled with Jeffrey Archer’s trademark twists and turns, Hidden in Plain Sight is the gripping next instalment in the life of William Warwick. It follows on from Nothing Ventured, but can be read as a standalone story.

Jeffrey Archer (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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The Forty Rules of Love

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Forty Rules of Love written by Elif Shafak, read by George Blagden. Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella's life - an emptiness once filled by love. So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is shocked out of herself. Turning her back on her family she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored...

Elif Shafak (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Nothing Ventured

Nothing Ventured is the incredible and thrilling novel by the master storyteller and bestselling author of the Clifton Chronicles and Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer. This is not a detective story, this is a story about a detective William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective, and decides, much to his father's dismay, that rather than become a barrister like his father, Sir Julian Warwick QC, and his sister Grace, he will join London's Metropolitan Police Force. After graduating from university, William begins a career that will define his life: from his early months on the beat under the watchful eye of his first mentor, Constable Fred Yates, to his first high-stakes case as a fledgling detective in Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques squad. Investigating the theft of a priceless Rembrandt painting from the Fitzmolean Museum, he meets Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the gallery who he falls hopelessly in love with, even as Beth guards a secret of her own that she's terrified will come to light. While William follows the trail of the missing masterpiece, he comes up against suave art collector Miles Faulkner and his brilliant lawyer, Booth Watson QC, who are willing to bend the law to breaking point to stay one step ahead of William. Meanwhile, Miles Faulkner's wife, Christina, befriends William, but whose side is she really on? Nothing Ventured heralds the start of a brand new series in the style of Jeffrey Archer's number one Sunday Times bestselling The Clifton Chronicles: telling the story of the life of William Warwick - as a family man and a detective who will battle throughout his career against a powerful criminal nemesis. Through twists, triumph and tragedy, this series will show that William Warwick is destined to become one of Jeffrey Archer's most enduring legacies.

Jeffrey Archer (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Warlight

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, read by George Blagden. LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018 An elegiac, dreamlike novel set in post-WW2 London about memory, family secrets and lies, from the internationally acclaimed author of The English Patient 'The past never remains in the past...' London, 1945. The capital is still reeling from the war. 14-year-old Nathaniel and his older sister Rachel are abandoned by their parents who leave the country on business, and are left in the dubious care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. Nathaniel is introduced to The Moth's band of criminal misfits and is caught up in a series of teenage misadventures, from smuggling greyhounds for illegal dog racing to lovers' trysts in abandoned buildings at night. But is this eccentric crew really what and who they claim to be? And most importantly, what happened to Nathaniel's mother? Was her purported reason for leaving true? What secrets did she hide in her past? Years later Nathaniel, now an adult, begins to slowly piece together using the files of intelligence agencies - and through reality, recollection and imagination - the startling truths of puzzles formed decades earlier. 'A novel of shadowy brilliance' The Times 'Fiction as rich, as beautiful, as melancholy as life itself, written in the visionary language of memory' Observer 'Ondaatje brilliantly threads the mysteries and disguises and tangled loyalties and personal yearnings of the secret world...and has constructed something of real emotional and psychological heft, delicate melancholy and yet, frequently, page-turning plottiness. I haven't read a better novel this year.' Telegraph

Michael Ondaatje (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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The Gates of Athens: Book One of Athenian

Brought to you by Penguin. The momentous struggle between Athens and Sparta as rival powers and political systems will last for twenty-seven years (431 to 404 BC). It will end in the fall of Athens. Filled with cunning political scheming, astonishing military prowess, invasions, treacheries, plagues, ambitions, virtues, and emotions and a lot of intrigue, Conn Iggulden brings to life one of the most thrilling chapters of the ancient world. © Conn Iggulden 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Conn Iggulden (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Over My Dead Body

An unputdownable story of murder, revenge and betrayal from international number one bestseller Jeffrey Archer. THE CLOCK IS TICKING IN THIS ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF A THRILLER… In London, the Metropolitan Police set up a new Unsolved Murders Unit – a cold case squad – to catch the criminals nobody else can. In Geneva, millionaire art collector Miles Faulkner – convicted of forgery and theft – was pronounced dead two months ago. So why is his unscrupulous lawyer still representing a dead client? On a luxury liner en route to New York, the battle for power at the heart of a wealthy dynasty is about to turn to murder. And at the heart of all three investigations are Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick, rising star of the Met, and ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan, brought in from the cold. But can they catch the killers before it’s too late? Praise for Jeffrey Archer: ‘Probably the greatest storyteller of our age’ Mail on Sunday 'Peerless master of the page turner' Daily Mail 'If there were a Nobel Prize for storytelling, Archer would win' Daily Telegraph ‘Archer is a master entertainer’ Time Jeffrey Archer’s previous novel Nothing Ventured was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 28th March 2020.

Jeffrey Archer (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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The Odyssey: Penguin Classics

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by George Blagden, star of Versailles and Vikings. This definitive recording is translated by E.V. Rieu, revised by D.C.H. Rieu, and contains an introduction by Peter Jones. The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his wit and native cunning if he is to reach his homeland safely and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him. (c) 1946, E. V. Rieu (P) 2019 Penguin Audio

Homer (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Turn a Blind Eye

Turn a Blind Eye is the third instalment in the gripping story of Detective Inspector William Warwick, by the master storyteller and Sunday Times number one bestselling author of the Clifton Chronicles. William Warwick, now a Detective Inspector, is tasked with a dangerous new line of work, to go undercover and expose crime of another kind: corruption at the heart of the Metropolitan Police Force. His team is focused on following Detective Jerry Summers, a young officer whose lifestyle appears to exceed his income. But as a personal relationship develops with a member of William’s team, it threatens to compromise the whole investigation. Meanwhile, a notorious drug baron goes on trial, with the prosecution case led by William’s father and sister. And William’s wife Beth, now a mother to twins, renews an old acquaintance who appears to have turned over a new leaf, or has she? As the undercover officers start to draw the threads together, William realizes that the corruption may go deeper still, and more of his colleagues than he first thought might be willing to turn a blind eye. ‘Peerless master of the page-turner’ – Daily Mail

Jeffrey Archer (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Man Who Saw Everything

***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019*** Brought to you by Penguin. Electrifying and audacious, an unmissable new novel about old and new Europe, old and new love, from the twice-Man Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home 'The man who had nearly run me over had touched my hair, as if he were touching a statue or something without a heartbeat...' In 1988 Saul Adler (a narcissistic, young historian) is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. He is apparently fine; he gets up and goes to see his art student girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. They have sex then break up, but not before she has photographed Saul crossing the same Abbey Road. Saul leaves to study in communist East Berlin, two months before the Wall comes down. There he will encounter - significantly - both his assigned translator and his translator's sister, who swears she has seen a jaguar prowling the city. He will fall in love and brood upon his difficult, authoritarian father. And he will befriend a hippy, Rainer, who may or may not be a Stasi agent, but will certainly return to haunt him in middle age. Slipping slyly between time zones and leaving a spiralling trail, Deborah Levy's electrifying The Man Who Saw Everything examines what we see and what we fail to see, the grave crime of carelessness, the weight of history and our ruinous attempts to shrug it off. 'Levy writes on the high wire, unfalteringly' Marina Warner

Deborah Levy (Author), George Blagden (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by George Blagden