Audiobooks narrated by James Taylor

Inspector Coleman and Sergeant Astor: Seven BBC Radio Crime Dramas

"The collected BBC Radio 4 crime dramas featuring Inspector Coleman and Sergeant Astor Like his actor namesake, Ronald Coleman is a suave, well-spoken English gentleman. But although he's a movie buff, Coleman is no film star - he's a copper, and a Detective Inspector to boot. Together with his down-to-earth Scottish partner, DS Fred Astor, he sets about solving cases on two very different patches - rural Kirkcaldy and inner-city Southampton. Death Beach sees Hollywood director Curt Zorack's film shoot interrupted by the death of one of the cast. But is it suicide or murder? In Death of a Mean Cornet, a jazz musician and old friend of Sergeant Astor is found dead of a heroin overdose. It looks like an accident, but Fred's not convinced. In Death Against the Odds, two murders in one night cause Inspector Coleman and Sergeant Astor to lose some sleep - and long for the days when sheep-rustling was the worst crime they had to deal with. Death of a Hooligan finds the two detectives working together at South Hants Central, and probing the suspicious death of a football fan; while in A Day at the Races, Sergeant Astor falls among thieves, and Inspector Coleman has one of his infamous hunches. In No Harm Done, the duo are faced with a wall of silence when a resident of the notorious Gantry Estate is found badly beaten. And in Fools Rush In, an IRA terrorist is released from Parkhurst prison - and promptly disappears. How is he connected to the mysterious Irishman causing parking problems on a suburban street? These enthralling crime dramas star Stephen Thorne as Coleman and Joe Dunlop as Astor, with a supporting cast including Diana Bishop, Frances Jeater and Nicholas Boulton. Production credits Written by Michael McStay Produced and directed by Jane Morgan and Ned Chaillet. Theme music by Stephen Warbeck Starring Stephen Thorne as Inspector Coleman and Joe Dunlop as Sergeant Astor Death Beach Cast: Peter Vaughan, Mary Miller, David King, Nigel Carrington, Vincent Brimble, Jonathan Oliver, James Greene, Michael McStay, Jane Whittenshaw, Sue Broomfield, Ben Onwukwe, Stephen Garlick, Nicholas Gilbrook First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 13 October 1990 Death of a Mean Cornet Cast: Kate Binchy, Maria Miles, James Grant, Paul Barber, Tony Armatrading, Michael McStay, Sidney Cole, Peter Gunn, John Forgeham, Terence Edmond, David Learner, John Webb, Matthew Sim, Mark Straker, Nicholas Murchie, Jonathan Tafler First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 18 July 1992 Death Against the Odds Cast: Peter Gunn, Phyllis Logan, James Warwick, Morag Hood, Elaine Collins, Diana Bishop, John Fleming, Pauline Yates, John Webb, David Holt, Dominic Letts First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 21 August 1993 Death of a Hooligan Cast: Diana Bishop, Frances Jeater, Nicholas Boulton, James Kerry, Dominic Curtis, Tom Bevan, Peter Kenny, Paul Panting, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Gareth Armstrong, James Taylor First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 16 May 1994 A Day at the Races Cast: Diana Bishop, Frances Jeater, Nicholas Boulton, John Hartley, Larry Dann, McCartney Brown, Breffni McKenna, Gareth Armstrong, David Jarvis, David Sinclair, James Taylor, Don McCorkindale. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 23 May 1994 No Harm Done Cast: Diana Bishop, Frances Jeater, Nicholas Boulton, Tony Osoba, Elaine Claxton, Pauline Letts, Dexter Fletcher, Simon Schatzberger, Deborah Berlin, Toby Jones, Sidney Cole, Peter Acre, Matthew Morgan, Gavin Muir, David Jarvis, Danny Schiller, Susannah Corbett First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 30 May 1994 Fools Rush In Cast: Diana Bishop, Frances Jeater, Nicholas Boulton, Anthony Jackson, Marianne Morley, Sally Kinghorn, Rachel Atkins, Michael Onslow, Tom Bevan, Paul Panting, Lyndham Gregory. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 6 June 1994 © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Michael Mcstay (Author), David Jarvis, Diana Bishop, Frances Jeater, Full Cast, Gareth Armstrong, James Taylor, Joe Dunlop, John Webb, Margaret Coleman, Michael Mcstay, Nicholas Boulton, Peter Gunn, Phyliss Logan, Stephen Thorne, Toby Jones (Narrator)

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The Age of Innocence

"The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, 'established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters''. The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, Gilded Age New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamoring for her work."

Edith Wharton (Author), Anna Cohen, James Taylor (Narrator)

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Fifty Shades of Summer

"Nature loosens her limbs, increases her ambition. Summer's work is intense with colour, she paints with a brighter light. The hours of night diminish, quickly shrink. She has no need for rest but a yearning to work. Vibrant swathes of shooting, pulsing colour almost overwhelm. Her tempo is beyond our awed imagination. Inspired, the air, the sea, the parching earth bring elemental strength. Summer storms, forest fires. The endless blue of sky, of ocean water will not still her work. Mistress of all. Our poets merely the inky pens of her will.In fifty poems we take you on their inspiring journey, reflecting on the miracle of summer."

John Keats, Sara Teasdale, William Butler Yeats (Author), Ghizela Rowe, James Taylor, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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The Divine Comedy

"The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia) is a long Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The narrative takes as its literal subject the state of souls after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward, and describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven, while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin (Inferno), followed by the penitent Christian life (Purgatorio), which is then followed by the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). Dante draws on medieval Roman Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called 'the Summa in verse'. In Dante's work, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides: Virgil (who represents human reason), Beatrice (who represents divine revelation, theology, faith, and grace), and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary). Erich Auerbach said Dante was the first writer to depict human beings as the products of a specific time, place and circumstance as opposed to mythic archetypes or a collection of vices and virtues; this along with the fully imagined world of The Divine Comedy, different from our own but fully visualized, suggests that the Divine Comedy could be said to have inaugurated modern fiction."

Dante Alighieri (Author), Anna Cohen, James Taylor (Narrator)

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The Poets of the 19th Century - Volume 2

"This is a Century for the history books. The Chinese curse of living in interesting times could not be more suited.A small island continued its expansion across the globe bringing both good and evil in its march. Empires clashed. Revolution shook many. The Industrial Age was upon us.Poets spoke up against slavery bringing social and political pressure upon an abominable horror. It was also the Age of the Romantics; Shelley, Keats, Byron lyrically rapture. Tennyson, Arnold, Browning rode a century of sweeping change of dynamism and great verse."

Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Hardy (Author), Ghizela Rowe, James Taylor, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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Leviathan

"Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic Western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642-1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ('the war of all against all') could only be avoided by strong, undivided government."

Thomas Hobbes (Author), Cynthia Franklin, James Taylor (Narrator)

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The Classic Short Stories - Volume 5

"Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements. Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page.Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft. Many attempt, but few achieve."

Edward Lear, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain (Author), Eve Karpf, James Taylor, Stuart Milligan (Narrator)

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Classic Short Stories - Volume 23

Jerome K. Jerome, Sapper (Author), Jake Urry, James Taylor (Narrator)

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The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

"The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm is a collection of the 211 Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, first published on 20 December 1812. The Brothers Grimm (die Brüder Grimm or die Gebrüder Grimm), Jacob Ludwig Karl (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Carl (1786-1859), were German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales, and popularized traditional oral tale types such as Cinderella (Aschenputtel), The Frog Prince (Der Froschkönig), The Goose-Girl (Die Gänsemagd), Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin (Rumpelstilzchen), Sleeping Beauty (Dornröschen), and Snow White (Schneewittchen). Their classic collection, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in two volumes - the first in 1812 and the second in 1815."

Jacob Grimm, The Brothers Grimm (Author), Helen Pyle, James Taylor (Narrator)

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Jerome K Jerome: The Short Stories

"Jerome K. Jerome - An early life of poverty exacerbated by the death of his parents in his early teens helped to cruelly mould the young Jerome. After early stints on the railways, as an actor, a journalist, a school teacher, a writer and a solicitors clerk he had some minor success with a collection of comic memoirs "On The Stage - And Off" about his earlier stint as an actor. Shortly thereafter he married and his honeymoon on the Thames became the inspiration for Three Men In A Boat. This of course was a wild success both critically and commercially and also his creative highpoint. Although he was now able to write full time he was never able to attain all the heights of that classic humorous novel. However he was prolific at the shorter form and it is from that rich seam that these stories have been mined. These stories are brought to your ears by James Taylor."

Jerome K. Jerome (Author), James Taylor, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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Edward Lear: Stories & Rhymes

"Edward Lear. Ah Nonsense! The English it is often said have a peculiar brand of humour. Along with copious cups of tea and a stiff upper lip it keeps life together in moments of difficulty and strife. One of our much loved humourists is Edward Lear, famed throughout the World for his Nonsense Verse and limericks. Born in Holloway, North London Lear was the 21st child of Ann and Jeremiah Lear and raised by his sister, Ann, who was, of course, 21 years older than Edward. His early life was unsettled, prone to illness especially epileptic fits which gave him a character coloured with guilt and shame. However by his 30s he had published his first book of Limericks in which his touching drawings were also displayed. His works as an artist are easily recognised and he helped to develop many techniques but his later works such as The Owl and the Pussycast, The Jumblies have established first and foremost as a writer of humourous verse. Lear travelled widely during his years and eventually settled in Sanremo it Italy eventually succumbing to death in 1876. On his nearby headstone are inscribed these lines from Tennyson's To E.L. [Edward Lear], On His Travels in Greece: ... all things fair. With such a pencil, such a pen. You shadow forth to distant men, I read and felt that I was there. These verses and stories are read for you by James Taylor, Nigel Planer and Ghizela Rowe."

Edward Lear (Author), Ghizela Rowe, James Taylor, Nigel Planer (Narrator)

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The Poetry of Thomas Hardy

"The Poetry Of Thomas Hardy - An Introduction. Many giants of Literature originate from the shores of these emerald isles; Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, The Brontes and Austen to which most people would willingly add the name Thomas Hardy. Far From The Madding Crowd, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, The Mayor Of Casterbridge are but three of his literary masterpieces. But let us go further and add to his canon his Poems. Hardy himself thought he was a poet who wrote novels purely for the money. Indeed his poems were not published until he was in his fifties after his major novels were published and his reputation set. Today his poetry is more rightly regarded in its own right. These poems are ready for you by James Taylor, Gideon Wagner, Richard Mitchley, Tim Graham and Ghizela Rowe."

Thomas Hardy (Author), Ghizela Rowe, Gideon Wagner, James Taylor, Richard Mitchley, Tim Graham (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by James Taylor