Europe Audiobooks | Travel

Queen of Scots: The Full Life of Mary Stuart

An intimate, myth-shattering new biography of Mary Queen of Scots by a premier historian that draws on a trove of newly discovered sources. Queen of Scots, the first full-scale biography of Mary in more than thirty years, offers a singularly novel, nuanced, and dramatic portrait of one of history\'s greatest women. John Guy draws on sources -- many previously unstudied -- as varied as the secret communiques of English spies and Mary\'s own letters. Dispelled is the ingrained popular image of Mary as a romantic leading lady, achieving her ends through feminine wiles, driven by love to murder, undone by passion and bad judgment. We come to see her as an emotionally intricate woman and an adroit diplomat, maneuvering ingeniously among a dizzying array of factions who sought to control or dethrone her. Guy\'s investigation of Mary\'s storied downfall throws sharp new light on questions that have baffled historians for centuries, and offers convincing new evidence that she was framed for the murder for which she was beheaded.

John Guy (Author), John Guy (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen of Spies: Daphne Park, Britain's Cold War Spy Master

The true story of Daphne Park, the female British secret intelligence officer who rose through the male-dominated ranks to become the Queen of Spies From living in a tin-roofed shack north of Dar es Salaam to becoming Baroness Park of Monmouth, Daphne Park led a most unusual life-one that consisted of a lifelong love affair with the world of Britain's secret services. In the 1970s, she was appointed to Secret Intelligence Service's most senior operational rank as one of its seven area controllers-an extraordinary achievement for a woman working within this most male-dominated and secretive of organizations. In Queen of Spies Paddy Hayes recounts the fascinating story of the evolution of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from World War II to the Cold War through the eyes of Daphne Park, one of its outstanding and most unusual operatives. He provides the reader with one of the most intimate narratives yet of how the modern SIS actually went about its business-whether in Moscow, Hanoi, or the Congo-and shows how Park was able to rise through the ranks of a field that had been comprised almost entirely of men. Queen of Spies captures all the paranoia, isolation, and deception of Cold War intelligence work and combines it with the personal story of one extraordinary woman trying to navigate this secretive world. Hayes unveils all that it may be possible to know about the life of one of Britain's most celebrated spies.

Paddy Hayes (Author), Elizabeth Jasicki (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen Victoria

This book broke away from tradition and provided a deeper look at the Queen and all those around her by abandoning the notion of promoting a persons successes and strengths and instead paints the portrait of a human with weaknesses, motivations, strengths, and struggles. The listener sees the Queen in relationships that become history and see the impact of personality in decision-making. This audio book is engaging especially once Victoria moves beyond childhood and becomes Queen. The portrait of Edward and Victoria's relationship is vivid. The story provides a rich understanding of places in the lives of the royal family that continue today, namely Balmoral, and give a glimpse at the royal family culture that can be seen in current events.

E. Gordon Browne (Author), Wendy Almeida (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen Victoria

A fresh, witty, accessible life of Queen Victoria. Not since Lytton Strachey has the irony, contradictions and influence of this Queen been treated with such flourish or biographical insight.Reigning over a lifetime, Queen Victoria embodied the spirit of the contradictory era to which she lent her name. She championed modern art and photography but resisted education for the working classes and woman's suffrage; she advocated cultural imperialism, tempered by imperial compassion; in her deference to her husband Prince Albert and her protracted mourning of his death, she combined wifely submission with regal obstinacy. Original and accessible, 'Queen Victoria' is a compelling assessment of the ruler's mercurial character, her key relationships and her impact on her own age and beyond.

Matthew Dennison (Author), Clare Corbett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers: A Personal History

It is generally accepted that Queen Victoria reigned but did not rule. This couldn’t be more wrong. In Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers, Anne Somerset masterfully traces Victoria’s political evolution, from headstrong teenager to seasoned octogenarian. This book demonstrates her passionate involvement in state affairs, and casts fresh light on her relationships with her ten prime ministers. Victoria herself acknowledged that when it came to ‘likes and dislikes’ of her prime ministers, ‘she had them very strongly’. She showed girlish adoration for her first Prime Minister, the worldly-wise Lord Melbourne, whose delightful conversation and kindly guidance enchanted her. Later in her reign, Benjamin Disraeli – who flattered her shamelessly, tirelessly praising her sagacity and judgement and filling her life with ‘poetry, romance and chivalry’ – became her favourite. While she developed a powerful bond with several of her Prime Ministers, in other cases the relationship fell little short of mutual detestation. Victoria’s keenest antipathy was reserved for Disraeli’s great rival, the Liberal William Gladstone. When he became prime minister for a fourth time at the age of 82, Victoria declared it ‘a bad joke’ that this ‘dangerous old fanatic’ should be ‘thrust down her throat’. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers charts the bitter clashes and affectionate interactions Victoria had with her ten premiers in often hilarious detail. Drawing extensively on unpublished sources such as material from the Royal Archives and never-before-seen prime ministerial papers, it casts a fresh and highly illuminating perspective not just on Victoria, but on the exceptionally able politicians who served her in government.

Anne Somerset (Author), Claire Vousden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen Victoria's Children

Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort, had nine children who, despite their very different characters remained a close-knit family. Inevitably, as they married into European royal families their loyalties were divided and their lives dominated by political controversy. This is not only the story of their lives in terms of world impact, but also of personal achievements in their own right, individual contributions to public life in Britain and overseas, and as the children of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. John Van der Kiste weaves together the lives of each of these children and shows how their mother was the thread that kept the family together. It is a refreshing insight into one of history's most popular royal families.

John Van der Kiste (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen Victoria's Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages that Shaped Europe

A captivating exploration of the role in which Queen Victoria exerted the most international power and influence: as a matchmaking grandmother. As her reign approached its sixth decade, Queen Victoria's grandchildren numbered over thirty, and to maintain and increase British royal power, she was determined to maneuver them into a series of dynastic marriages with the royal houses of Europe. Yet for all their apparent obedience, her grandchildren often had plans of their own, fueled by strong wills and romantic hearts. Victoria's matchmaking plans were further complicated by the tumultuous international upheavals of the time: revolution and war were in the air, and kings and queens, princes and princesses were vulnerable targets. Queen Victoria's Matchmaking travels through the glittering, decadent palaces of Europe from London to Saint Petersburg, weaving in scandals, political machinations and family tensions to enthralling effect. It is at once an intimate portrait of a royal family and an examination of the conflict caused by the marriages the Queen arranged. At the heart of it all is Victoria herself: doting grandmother one moment, determined Queen Empress the next.

Deborah Cadbury (Author), Charlotte Strevens (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter: A Biography of Princess Louise

Spirited and lively, Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter is richly packed with arguments, intrigues, scandals, and secrets, and is a vivid portrait of a princess desperate to escape her inheritance. The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumor and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view. Louise was a sculptor and painter, friend to the Pre-Raphaelites and a keen member of the Aesthetic movement. The most feisty of the Victorian princesses, she kicked against her mother's controlling nature and remained fiercely loyal to her brothers-especially the sickly Leopold and the much-maligned Bertie. She sought out other unconventional women, including Josephine Butler and George Eliot, and campaigned for education and health reform and for the rights of women. She battled with her indomitable mother for permission to practice the "masculine" art of sculpture and go to art college-and in doing so became the first British princess to attend a public school. The rumors of Louise's colorful love life persist even today, with hints of love affairs dating as far back as her teenage years, and notable scandals included entanglements with her sculpting tutor Joseph Edgar Boehm and possibly even her sister Princess Beatrice's handsome husband, Liko. True to rebellious form, she refused all royal suitors and became the first member of the royal family, since the sixteenth century, to marry a commoner. She moved with him to Canada when he was appointed Governor-General.

Lucinda Hawksley (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queens of the Conquest

In the first volume of this epic new series, Alison Weir strips away centuries of romantic mythology and prejudice to reveal the lives of England's queens in the century after the Norman Conquest. Beginning with Matilda of Flanders, who supported William the Conqueror in 1066, to the turbulent life of the Empress Maud, who claimed to be queen of England in her own right and fought a bitter war to that end, the five Norman queens emerge as hugely influential figures and fascinating characters.

Alison Weir (Author), Julia Franklin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queens of the Conquest

This epic book brings to vivid life five powerful Norman queens, from Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, to the Empress Matilda, mother to King Henry II, founder of the Plantagenet dynasty. The lives of England's medieval queens were packed with tragedy, betrayal, love, warfare, adultery and mystery-but their stories are obscured by centuries of myth and prejudice against these powerful women. These Norman queens were actually more autonomous and influential than most later queens, since they actually participated in battles and led troops of their own. By joining her husband William the Conqueror in the battle to take control of England, Matilda of Flanders set a precedent for her female descendants to continue to ride onto the battlefield and maintain their own separate armies.

Alison Weir (Author), Julia Franklin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation

A concise history of the goddess-like figures who evade both Christian and pagan traditions, from the medieval period to the present day In this riveting account, renowned scholar Ronald Hutton explores the history of deity-like figures in Christian Europe. Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, literature, and history, Hutton shows how hags, witches, the fairy queen, and the Green Man all came to be, and how they changed over the centuries. Looking closely at four main figures-Mother Earth, the Fairy Queen, the Mistress of the Night, and the Old Woman of Gaelic tradition-Hutton challenges decades of debate around the female figures who have long been thought versions of pre-Christian goddesses. He makes the compelling case that these goddess figures found in the European imagination did not descend from the pre-Christian ancient world, yet have nothing Christian about them. It was in fact nineteenth-century scholars who attempted to establish the narrative of pagan survival that persists today.

Ronald Hutton (Author), Gary Paul Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day

In Queer City, the acclaimed Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way-through the complete history and experiences of its gay and lesbian population. In Roman Londinium, the city was dotted with lupanaria ("wolf dens" or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels), and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks, and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure. Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music, and the horror of AIDS. Ackroyd reveals the hidden story of London, with its diversity, thrills, and energy, as well as its terrors, dangers, and risks, and in doing so, explains the origins of all English-speaking gay culture.

Peter Ackroyd (Author), Will Watt (Narrator)

Audiobook

Europe Audiobooks in Travel