Audiobooks narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon

Queen Victoria's Favourite Granddaughter: Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, the Most Conseque

"In the fall of 1947, an eighty-four-year-old woman receives an extraordinary invitation. Within is the end of a long journey seeking vindication for a husband who gave his life to the service of the Royal Navy and received, in return, ingratitude. Thus begins the story of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Victoria, the eldest daughter of Princess Alice and Prince Ludwig of Hesse, was born in April 1863. Queen Victoria helped her granddaughter shoulder the responsibilities of caring for the motherless family, writing letters of advice and guidance, a correspondence lasting some thirty years. In April 1884, Victoria married the dashing Prince Louis of Battenberg, an officer in the Royal Navy, who eventually became Britain's First Sea Lord. Their daughter, Alice, was the future mother of Prince Philip and their youngest child, another Louis, was Viceroy of India. On the eve of World War I, Prince Louis of Battenberg was forced to resign because of his German surname, which he later changed to Mountbatten. Through cataclysms, both familial and historical, traveling from prerevolutionary Russia to the British Mandate of Palestine, Victoria's life was as exciting as it was triumphant."

Ilana D Miller (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Entwined Magic: A Pride and Prejudice Fantasy Variation

"The bewitching, much-anticipated conclusion of the award-winning Pride and Prejudice variation! Elizabeth and Darcy dream of a peaceful life together in idyllic Pemberley, but when rumors start circulating that Napoleon intends to invade the Kingdom by sea, they are sent with a group of Royal Mages to the coast of Kent to discover the truth. But the truth is hidden under multiple layers of uncertainty, and they soon suspect they have been lured into a trap. Faced with danger and betrayal, Elizabeth and Darcy must depend on each other to survive. Will their circumstances bring them closer together, or tear them apart? Will the war ever allow Elizabeth and Darcy's love to blossom? And—most importantly—what sacrifices must they make to find their well-deserved happiness?"

Monica Fairview (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Anthony Trollope: A Very Short Introduction

"Anthony Trollope is among the best-loved novelists in the English language. His strongly drawn characters and skillful plots are compelling, while his moral judgements are often subtly challenging. He is an entertainer, but his power to make his readers think, and to feel, is unrivalled. This Very Short Introduction will place Trollope's work in the context of his life and times, drawing on recent scholarship to illuminate his central interests and literary strategies. The major series of novels (the six novels located in the fictional Barsetshire, and the six Palliser novels) are explored alongside the novels set in Ireland, his travel writing, and his less well-known fiction. Trollope's work is energized by the complexities of the Victorian Britain, with its political tensions, its troubled views of the relation between men and women, its expanding place in the wider world, and its growing discomfort with the contradictions created by a corrosive preoccupation with wealth and display. But Trollope's writing is of more than historical interest. His insight into the motives of human behavior and of the conflict between the need for reform and the wish to defend what might be destroyed by the pressure for change, feels surprisingly modern. Birch shows how his writing has retained its vivid appeal to new generations of readers."

Dinah Birch (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain

"The acclaimed author of Witches, Druids, and King Arthur presents a 'lucid, open-minded' cultural history of the Druids as part of British identity (Terry Jones). Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. Historian Ronald Hutton shows how this lack of definite information has allowed succeeding British generations to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton's captivating book is the first to encompass two thousand years of Druid history and to explore the evolution of English, Scottish, and Welsh attitudes toward the forever ambiguous figures of the ancient Celtic world. Druids have been remembered at different times as patriots, scientists, philosophers, or priests. Sometimes portrayed as corrupt, bloodthirsty, or ignorant, they were also seen as fomenters of rebellion. Hutton charts how the Druids have been written in and out of history, archaeology, and the public consciousness for some 500 years, with particular focus on the romantic period, when Druids completely dominated notions of British prehistory. Sparkling with legends, filled with new perspectives on ancient and modern times, this fascinating cultural study reveals Druids as catalysts in British history."

Ronald Hutton (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Familiar Violence: A History of Child Abuse

"Child abuse casts a long shadow over the history of childhood. Across the centuries there are numerous accounts of children being beaten, neglected, sexually assaulted, or even killed by those closest to them. This book explores this darker side of childhood history, looking at what constituted cruelty towards children in the past and at the social responses towards it. Focusing primarily on England, it is a history of violence against children in their own homes, covering a large timeframe which extends from medieval times to the present. Undeniably, the experience of children in the past was often brutal, and children were treated with, what seems to contemporary mores, callousness and cruelty. However, historians have paid far less attention to how the mistreatment of children was understood within its contemporary context. Most parents, both now and in the past, loved their children and there have always been widely shared understandings of the boundaries that separate the acceptable treatment of children from the intolerable and morally wrong. This book will examine how these boundaries have changed and been contested over time and, in doing so, provides a context to the many forms of violence experienced by children in the past."

Heather Montgomery (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome

"A fascinating and often-funny look into Romans' private (or not-so-private) lives, exploring the truth behind the empire's salacious reputation. From emperors to empresses, poets to prostitutes, slaves to plebs, ancient Rome was a wealth of different experiences and expectations—nowhere more so than around the subject of sex and sexuality. The image of ancient Rome that has come down to us is one of sexual excess: emperors gripped by perversion partaking in pleasure with whomever and whatever they fancied during weeklong orgies. But how true are these tales of depravity? Was it really a sexual free-for-all? What were the laws surrounding sexual engagement? How did these vary according to gender and class? And what happened to those who transgressed the rules? We invite you to climb into bed with the Romans to discover some very odd contraceptive devices, gather top tips on how to attract a partner, and learn why you should avoid poets as lovers at all costs. Along the way we'll stumble across potions and spells, emperors and their favorites, and some truly eye-popping interior decor choices."

L J Trafford (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Laughter in Ancient Rome: on Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up

"What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear—a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing—from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book—Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient 'monkey business' to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising. But she also reflects on even bigger historical questions. What kind of history of laughter can we possibly tell? Can we ever really 'get' the Romans' jokes?"

Mary Beard (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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They Were Here Before Us: Stories from Our First Million Years

"This is not a book about archaeological sites. We shall come across flint tools, bones, skulls, surprising structures, and layers of earth that we can date to different periods—but they are not the heart of the matter. This book is about us, human beings, and about our place in the world. About what we have done, where we came from, which other humans used to be here, why they are no longer with us, and how and why our lives have changed. It's also about where we went wrong. What did early humans do because they had no choice and what is the price we are paying for this now? Taking as the focus ten sites in Israel, the land corridor through which the human species passed on its journey from Africa to Europe, the story ranges far and wide from France, Spain, Turkey, and Georgia to Morocco and South Africa, North America, Columbia, and Peru. The authors follow the footsteps of our ancestors, describing the tools they used, the animals they hunted and the monuments they built. This provocative and panoramic book shows listeners what they can learn from their ancestors, and how the unwavering ability of prehistoric people to survive and thrive can continue into the present."

Eyal Halfon, Ran Barkai (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Blue Desert

"2021 IPNE Finalist, Literary Fiction 2021 Women's Book Awards Sarton Finalist, Historical Fiction Alice George is a headstrong young British woman who finds herself living among the Tuareg, a tribe of nomadic warriors. While the outside world faces the catastrophe of World War I, the Tuareg continue to crisscross the Sahara as a matrilineal society in which the men are veiled, and the women hold property—a world in which anything can happen. It is a world well suited to eighteen-year-old Alice, who discovers a life she could never live in corseted England. In 1917, Alice returns home to a world completely alien to the one she left in the Sahara. Her silence about that life is finally broken sixty years later when she receives a telegram announcing Abu has died in the desert. 'Who is Abu?' her husband asks. 'My lover,' she replies. Thus, begins a weeklong journey of revelation as Alice lays bare her secrets. Can Alice face her demons and open her heart more fully to the life she once lived in the Sahara—a life she has hidden from her husband and herself? Blue Desert is a story of exile, family secrets, and the power of love."

Celia Jeffries (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Traces of Magic: A Pride and Prejudice Fantasy Variation

"As long as she lived, Elizabeth would never forget the look on Darcy's face when he saw her coming towards him. Elizabeth and Darcy are finally settling down at the Netherfield Royal Mages Academy when a mysterious flare of magic sends them scampering to discover what is happening. But they are soon left with more questions than answers. Why has Elizabeth's sister Lydia gone missing? Who is the mysterious gentleman they encountered at an inn? And more importantly, why have they been summoned to London to attend to the Prince Regent himself? As Elizabeth and Darcy grapple with unsettling revelations, they find themselves caught up in a web of deception that could lead to the downfall of the Kingdom itself. If you enjoy your Pride and Prejudice with a twist of magic and a hint of Harry Potter, you will love following Darcy and Elizabeth's romance in this rollicking Jane Austen fantasy adventure set in the Regency world."

Monica Fairview (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution

"This momentous biography tells the story of the Huxleys: the Victorian natural historian T. H. Huxley ('Darwin's Bulldog') and his grandson, the scientist, conservationist, and zoologist Julian Huxley. Between them, they communicated to the world the great modern story of the theory of evolution by natural selection. In The Huxleys, celebrated historian Alison Bashford writes about these omnivorous intellects together, almost as if they were a single man whose long, vital life bookended the colossal shifts in world history from the age of sail to the Space Age, and from colonial wars to world wars to the cold war. The Huxleys' specialty was evolution in all its forms—at the grandest level of species, deep time, the Earth, and at the most personal and intimate. They illuminated the problems and wonders of the modern world and they fundamentally shaped how we see ourselves. But perhaps their greatest subject was themselves. Bashford's engaging, brilliantly ambitious book interweaves the Huxleys' momentous public achievements with their private triumphs and tragedies. The result is the history of a family, but also a history of humanity grappling with its place in nature. This book shows how much we owe—for better or worse—to the unceasing curiosity, self-absorption, and enthusiasms of a small, strange group of men and women."

Alison Bashford (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought; 3rd Edition

"Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought traces the development of Christian theology from its earliest days to the present. This authoritative, accessible textbook introduces the major theological movements, key ideas, and individual theologians of the Patristic Period, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Reformation and Post-Reformation, and the Modern Era up to the present day. Now in its third edition, Historical Theology includes substantial new sections on theodicy, modern African Christologies, and postcolonial theology. This fully updated new edition: provides a general overview of each period covered, including historical background and main theological developments; features individual case studies and excerpts from primary texts; defines the fundamental theological vocabulary necessary for engaging with other works; highlights the importance of the discipline of historical theology and its place in wider Christian theology; contains references to further readings in each chapter and full glossaries of important words, names, phrases, and theological developments. Written by one of the most renowned theologians in the field, Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought, Third Edition remains the perfect textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses."

Alister E. Mcgrath (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon