Audiobooks narrated by Lenny Henry

Anansi Boys: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

A brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Neil Gaiman's bestselling and much-loved novel When his father dies, Fat Charlie Nancy discovers that not only was the late Mr Nancy actually the god Anansi, but that he also has a long-lost brother, Spider, who is everything Fat Charlie is not. When Spider begins to take over Fat Charlie's life, flat and even his fiancée Rosie, Fat Charlie is forced to make a pact that lands him in trouble with the gods themselves... Anansi Boys is a story of love, laughter, music and murder, old gods and new tricks that takes Fat Charlie from his home in South London to Florida, the Caribbean, and the very Beginning of the World itself. Or the End of the World. Depending on which direction you're coming from. Jacob Anderson stars as Charlie, and he has written and performed a specially commissioned song - 'Charlie's Song' - which forms part of the magical fabric of Anansi Boys. Dramatised for Radio 4 by the award-winning Dirk Maggs (Neverwhere, Good Omens, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), the stellar cast of this series also includes Joseph Marcell, Lenny Henry, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Adjoa Andoh,Julie Hesmondhalgh and Julian Rhind-Tutt, as well as a cameo appearance from Neil Gaiman himself.

Neil Gaiman (Author), , Adjoa Andoh, Angela Wynter, Ariyon Bakare, Earl Cameron, Full Cast, Jacob Anderson, Joseph Marcell, Josiah Choto, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Lenny Henry, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Ronke Adekoluejo, Sheila Atim (Narrator)

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Anansi Boys

God is dead. Meet the kids. When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life. Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie. Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself. Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure house of story, and we are lucky to have him." Performed by Lenny Henry

Neil Gaiman (Author), Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase: And Another Thing...

The brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast series based on And Another Thing the sixth book in the famous Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy . Forty years on from the first ever radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent and friends return in six brand new episodes, in which they are thrown back into the Whole General Mish Mash in a rattling adventure involving Viking Gods and Irish Confidence Tricksters, with our first glimpse of Eccentrica Gallumbits and a brief but memorable moment with The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal. Starring John Lloyd as The Book, with Simon Jones as Arthur, Geoff McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson and Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Jim Broadbent as Marvin the Paranoid Android and Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch, the cast also includes Samantha Bart, Toby Longworth, Andy Secombe, Ed Byrne, Lenny Henry, Philip Pope, Mitch Benn, Jon Culshaw and Professor Stephen Hawking. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018, the series is written and directed by Dirk Maggs and based on And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams. This edition also includes over 50 minutes of unbroadcast bonus material. Listeners are reminded that the relaxed attitude to danger provided by Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses is no substitute for running around, screaming.

Douglas Adams, Eoin Colfer (Author), , Ed Byrne, Full Cast, Geoffrey Mcgivern, Jane Horrocks, Lenny Henry, Mark Wing-Davey, Sandra Dickinson, Simon Jones (Narrator)

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White Teeth

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of White Teeth by Zadie Smith, read by Lenny Henry, Sagar Arya, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Ray Panthaki. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is a classic international bestseller and an unforgettable portrait of London One of the most talked about fictional debuts ever, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book. 'Funny, clever ... and a rollicking good read' Independent 'An astonishingly assured début, funny and serious ... I was delighted' Salman Rushdie 'The almost preposterous talent was clear from the first pages' Julian Barnes, Guardian

Zadie Smith (Author), Lenny Henry, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Ray Panthaki, Sagar Arya (Narrator)

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My Name is Leon

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of My Name Is Leon by Kit De Waal, read by Lenny Henry. A brother chosen. A brother left behind. And a family where you'd least expect to find one. Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and wearing Pretend faces. They are threatening to give Jake to strangers. Since Jake is white and Leon is not. As Leon struggles to cope with his anger, certain things can still make him smile - like Curly Wurlys, riding his bike fast downhill, burying his hands deep in the soil, hanging out with Tufty (who reminds him of his dad), and stealing enough coins so that one day he can rescue Jake and his mum. Evoking a Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a heart-breaking story of love, identity and learning to overcome unbearable loss. Of the fierce bond between siblings. And how - just when we least expect it - we manage to find our way home.

Kit De Waal (Author), Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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White Teeth: A Novel

Zadie Smith’s dazzling debut caught critics grasping for comparisons and deciding on everyone from Charles Dickens to Salman Rushdie to John Irving and Martin Amis. But the truth is that Zadie Smith’s voice is remarkably, fluently, and altogether wonderfully her own. At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London’ s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.

Zadie Smith (Author), Arya Sagar, Lenny Henry, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Ray Panthaki (Narrator)

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I'm Still the Same Paul

A BBC Radio 3 full-cast dramatisation by Annie Caulfield, starring Lenny Henry as singer and political activist Paul Robeson. Originally broadcast Sunday 21 February 2010. As an outspoken apologist for Stalin and agitator for civil rights Paul Robeson had many enemies, including the CIA. His passport was taken away, his career curtailed and his health threatened. First assigned to the Robeson case in 1949, fictional retired FBI agent Michael Vincent (Corey Johnson) re-examines his story, focussing on the dramatic period from 1950-1961. Directed by Claire Grove, starring Lenny Henry as Paul Robeson, Adjoa Andoh as Essie Robeson and Corey Johnson as Michael Vincent. Also starring are: Joanna Monro, Alibe Parsons, David Seddon, Rufus Wright and Alex Lanipekun.

Annie Caulfield (Author), A Full Cast, Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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Day Release: The Complete Series 1 and 2: Six BBC Radio 4 dramas

A moment of reprieve. Nobody knows you. No one owns you. You're on day release.' Lenny Henry plays double murderer Frank Watt, who is getting ready to face life on the outside after 30 years in prison. He's looking forward to getting out, but things have changed a lot since the 80s and he's institutionalised. He quite likes his bookish, monk-like life inside and the anger he was boiling over with when he went to prison is down to a manageable simmer. Outside, life is full on. Plus, Frank's got some old business to sort. Playwright and journalist Peter Jukes is best known for his book about the hacking trial, Beyond Contempt (which he also dramatised for Radio 4), and more recently for his award-winning podcast and subsequent book Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder Uncovered. Sir Lenny Henry is award-winning actor and playwright, and one of Britain's best known comedians. Directed by Mary Peate.

Peter Jukes (Author), , Deeivya Meir, Lenny Henry, Ralph Ineson (Narrator)

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Do You Speak English, Moon?

A timeless bedtime story from Francesca Simon, read by Lenny Henry. This download includes dramatised and undramatised versions of the story. A little boy getting ready for bed looks up at the moon and wonders whether it can speak English as it shines all over the world. He tells the moon about his day - it's not lonely falling asleep when you share your day's adventures with the moon.

Francesca Simon (Author), Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen

Lenny Henry presents this groundbreaking BBC radio series exploring a century of black British theatre, TV and film In this fascinating ten-part series, Lenny Henry traces the long and painful road that black Britons have travelled on stage and screen, from the overt racial discrimination of the 19th Century, via the thinly veiled slurs that persisted through the first 70 years of the 20th, to today's more equal society. Interviewing playwrights, actors, directors and filmmakers - including Mustapha Matura, Roy Williams, Lolita Chakrabarti, Michael Buffong, Horace Ové and Steve McQueen - he tells the story of black drama and the influential artists who have shaped it over the past hundred years. Beginning with the breakthrough arrival of Kwame Kwei-Armah's celebrated tragedy Elmina's Kitchen to the West End, he goes on to examine the evolving depiction of Afro-Caribbeans on TV from Love Thy Neighbour to Desmond's; explores the complex stage history of Othello; focuses on how Caribbean migration has been reflected on stage and screen; and journeys back to the 1960s and 70s to explore the spirit of protest that welled up with the advent of the Black Power movement. In addition, he looks at the burgeoning black theatre companies of the 1970s and 80s; charts the breakthrough of a host of powerful new voices in the 90s; scrutinizes attitudes towards homosexuality; investigates the current blossoming of new theatrical voices with roots in Africa and concludes with a look at future prospects and opportunities for black British talent.

Lenny Henry (Author), Full Cast, Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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Bad Faith: The Complete Series: A Series of Four Plays - Bad Faith, Vengeance Is Mine, The Fire this

A series of four plays by about Jake Thorne, a Methodist minister and police chaplain who is battling with his own demons at the same time as trying to resolve the problems of his parishioners. In the first of the plays, 'Bad Faith', we are introduced to Jake Thorne, a police chaplain. His job is to offer counselling and comfort to officers in trouble, victims and young offenders. But Jake has lost his faith and has decided, as a test for God, to behave appallingly towards those he's supposed to help. In the second play, 'Vengeance is Mine', Jake gets involved in a restorative justice programme which tries to reconcile a bereaved mother and the woman responsible for killing her daughter. 'The Fire This Time' sees Jake takes on his arch-rival and nemesis Bishop Elias Wright in a battle over the soul of a mentally unstable parishioner, fighting the good fight against homophobia and Islamophobia along the way. In the final play, 'Nothing Sacred', Jake counsels a policeman who has lost his memory of a fatal blaze. Meanwhile Jake's father, Isaac, is slipping into dementia and seems intent on wreaking revenge on the whole world, particularly his own son. Starring Lenny Henry, Danny Sapani and Jenny Jules. Written by Peter Jukes. Producers: Steven Canny and Mary Peate. Executive Producer: Simon Elmes.

Peter Jukes (Author), Danny Sapani, Full Cast, Jenny Jules, Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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Ugly Duckling

Take delight in this beautiful retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's Ugly Duckling, voiced by the marvellous Sir Lenny Henry. Lenny Henry is an English stand-up comedian, actor, and television presenter, among other things, known for cofounding the charity Comic Relief. He was appointed a CBE in 1999 and knighted in 2015 for services to drama and charity.

Hans Christian Andersen (Author), Lenny Henry (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Lenny Henry