Europe Audiobooks | Travel

The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History

The first account of the dissolution of the monasteries for fifty years-exploring its profound impact on the people of Tudor England Shortly before Easter, 1540 saw the end of almost a millennium of monastic life in England. Until then religious houses had acted as a focus for education, literary, and artistic expression and even the creation of regional and national identity. Their closure, carried out in just four years between 1536 and 1540, caused a dislocation of people and a disruption of life not seen in England since the Norman Conquest. Drawing on the records of national and regional archives as well as archaeological remains, James Clark explores the little-known lives of the last men and women who lived in England's monasteries before the Reformation. Clark challenges received wisdom, showing that buildings were not immediately demolished and Henry VIII's subjects were so attached to the religious houses that they kept fixtures and fittings as souvenirs. This rich, vivid history brings back into focus the prominent place of abbeys, priories, and friaries in the lives of the English people.

James G. Clark (Author), Nigel Patterson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: The BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Kris Marshall and Katherine Jakeways star as Mr & Mrs Pepys in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the world famous diaries.Samuel Pepys was 26 when he decided to start keeping a diary, in January 1660. For the next ten years he faithfully recorded the day's events and confessed his innermost thoughts. That diary has since become one of our most important, and fascinating, historical documents.Pepys gave us eyewitness accounts of some of the great events of the 17th century, including the Great Fire of London and the Second Dutch War. He also told us what people ate and wore, what they did for fun, the tricks they played on each other, what they expected of marriage, and even how they conducted love affairs. He described London - the frozen river Thames, the rising crime rate and the poverty - and recorded the details of his own life: his wife, rivals, lovers and friends, his work for the Navy, his drinking and social life.Over 350 years may have passed since Pepys first put pen to paper, but the man and his preoccupations feel surprisingly familiar. In this major BBC Radio dramatisation of the journals, the sights and sounds of his world are vividly conjured. This collection comprises all ten radio series plus a special Saturday Drama centring on the Great Fire of London.Featuring Kris Marshall and Katherine Jakeways, as well as; ewan Baily, Rebecca Newman, Matthew Gravelle, Manon Edwards, Blake Ritson, Dick Bradnam, Lee Mingo, Andrew Wincott, John Biddle, Stephen Marzella and Bendan Charleson.

Hattie Naylor, Samuel Pepys (Author), , Full Cast, Hattie Naylor, Katherine Jakeways, Kris Marshall (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Diary of Countess Anna Maria Berezowska

This is the story of an orphaned Polish countess, Anna Maria Berezowska. With her always is a diary, hidden within a medieval Bible cover, where Anna records four years of her struggle to survive the bloody wars shattering Eastern Europe in the late 1700s. Anna is often joined by her wild and sensual cousin Sophia. These two strong and resilient young women navigate royal ballrooms and rustic villages, the courtship of counts, violence in the forests, and intrigues of the heart as danger fills every corner of their lives. Powerful, authentic, and exquisitely written, Countess Anna's coming-of-age saga accurately portrays her longing to be remembered by her descendants. Centuries later, these pages finally grant her that wish. Translated from mainly old Polish, The Diary of Countess Anna Maria Berezowska, is a unique and detailed glimpse into a real period of social upheaval which will leave you questioning every historical drama you have ever read.

Anna Maria Berezowska (Author), Iris Hart (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Diana Chronicles

Ten years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she “the people’s princess,” who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy? Only Tina Brown, former editor-in-chief of Tatler–England’s glossiest gossip magazine–Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, could possibly give us the truth. Tina knew Diana personally and has far-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself. In THE DIANA CHRONICLES, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them: among them, Diana’s sexually charged mother, bad-girl sister-in-law Fergie, and, most formidable of all, her mother-in-law, the Queen. Add Camilla Parker Bowles into this combustible mix and it’s no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.

Tina Brown (Author), Rosalyn Landor (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Diana Chronicles

Brought to you by Penguin. More than twenty years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she 'the people's princess,' who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy? The Diana Chronicles parts the curtains on Diana's troubled time in the mysterious world of the Windsors, as she breaks out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect. Knowing Diana personally, Tina Brown understands her world, understands its players and has-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself. Meet the formidable female cast and get to know the society they inhabit, as you never have before. © Tina Brown 2007 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Tina Brown (Author), Rosalyn Landor (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Devonshires: The Story of a Family and a Nation

AD AE AF AG AI AL AM AO AQ AR AS AT AU AW AX AZ BA BB BD BE BF BG BH BI BJ BL BM BN BO BQ BR BS BT BV BW BY BZ CA CC CD CF CG CH CI CK CL CM CN CO CR CU CV CW CX CY CZ DE DJ DK DM DO DZ EC EE EG EH ER ES ET FI FJ FK FM FO FR GA GB GD GE GF GG GH GI GL GM GN GP GQ GR GS GT GU GW GY HK HM HN HR HT HU ID IE IL IM IN IO IQ IR IS IT JE JM JO JP KE KG KH KI KM KN KP KR KW KY KZ LA LB LC LI LK LR LS LT LU LV LY MA MC MD ME MF MG MH MK ML MM MN MO MP MQ MR MS MT MU MV MW MX MY MZ NA NC NE NF NG NI NL NO NP NR NU NZ OM PA PE PF PG PH PK PL PM PN PR PS PT PW PY QA RE RO RS RU RW SA SB SC SD SE SG SH SI SJ SK SL SM SN SO SR SS ST SV SX SY SZ TC TD TF TG TH TJ TK TL TM TN TO TR TT TV TW TZ UA UG UM US UY UZ VA VC VE VG VI VN VU WF WS YE YT ZA ZM ZW

Roy Hattersley (Author), Michael Jayston (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Devils of Loudun: A True Story of Demonic Possession

In 1632 an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier-accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge-was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft. A remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession, The Devils of Loudon is considered by many to be Brave New World author Aldous Huxley's nonfiction masterpiece.

Aldous Huxley (Author), Matthew Lloyd Davies (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Demon's Brood: A History of the Plantagenet Dynasty

The Plantagenets reigned over England longer than any other family-from Henry II to Richard III. Four kings were murdered, two came close to being deposed, and the last-and most notorious, Richard III-was killed in a battle by rebels. Shakespeare wrote plays about six of them, further entrenching them in the national myth. Based on major contemporary sources and recent research, acclaimed historian Desmond Seward provides the first accessible overview of the whole extraordinary dynasty, in one volume.

Desmond Seward (Author), Michael Page (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Defeat of the Damned: The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, Dece

One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the 'Dirlewanger Special Unit.' Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. One month later, it fought one of its most controversial actions near the town of Ipolysag, Hungary. As a result of its overly hasty and haphazard deployment, lack of heavy armament, and a confusing chain of command, it was virtually destroyed by two Soviet mechanized corps. Consequently, the Wehrmacht leadership blamed Dirlewanger and the performance of his troops for the encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest that led to the annihilation of its garrison two months later. The brigade's defeat at Ipolysag also led to its compulsory removal from the front lines and its eventual shipment to a rest area where it would be completely rebuilt. Despite its lackluster performance, the brigade was rebuilt again but never recovered from the thrashing it received at the hands of the 6th Guards Army.

Douglas E. Nash Sr., Douglas E. Nash, Sr. (Author), David Stifel (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Decline of the Soviet Unionr: The History of the Communist Empire in the Last 30 Years of Its Ex

Leonid Brezhnev became First Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union in late 1964 after a plot to oust Khrushchev. Little is remembered in the public imagination about Brezhnev in comparison to Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Lenin, or Joseph Stalin, despite the fact Brezhnev ruled the USSR from 1964-1982, longer than any Soviet leader other than Stalin. In fact, he held power during a tumultuous era that changed the world in remarkable ways, and that era has been favorably remembered by many former Soviet citizens. It marked a period of relative calm and even prosperity after the destruction of World War II and the tensions brought about by Khrushchev. Foremost amongst Brezhnev's achievements would be the détente period in the early 1970s, when the Soviets and Americans came to a number of agreements that reduced Cold War pressures and the alarming threat of nuclear war. The Cold War moved into one of its most dangerous phases after Brezhnev's death as both sides deployed nuclear weapons within alarming proximity in Europe. A NATO exercise, "Operation Able Archer," almost led to a Soviet miscalculation, and when the Soviets shot down a South Korean airliner in September 1983, claiming it had strayed into Soviet airspace, the Cold War became very tense indeed. After going through three elderly leaders in three years, Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen as the new General Secretary at the relatively youg age of 54 in March 1985. Gorbachev hoped to build the Soviet economy to relieve the persistent shortages of consumer goods it faced, which were caused by enormous military spending of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev tried to introduce some economic reforms, but they were blocked by communist hardliners. Gorbachev then came to the belief that the Soviet economy could not improved without political reform as well.

Charles River Editors (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volume 3

This final volume of Gibbon’s celebrated work covers 1185 A.D.—1453 A.D. and explores the rise of Islam, the Crusades, the invention of gunpowder, Genghis Khan and the Mongol invasions, the Turkish conquests, and the beginning of the Renaissance. “I set out upon...Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [and] was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. ...I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all.”—Winston Chruchill

Edward Gibbon (Author), Bernard Mayes (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volume 2

This second volume of Gibbon’s masterpiece, covering a.d. 395 to a.d. 1185, recounts desperate attempts against barbarians, palace revolutions and assassinations, theological controversy, and lecheries and betrayals, all in a magnificent setting. “Edward Gibbon, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has always been my cynosure…Gibbon’s mind was surely the most powerful and most lucid one that has appeared so far in the whole distinguished company of Western historians…Gibbon [produced] a masterpiece of historical research, construction, and writing which had no superior in its own genre in any literature.”—Arnold Toynbee, New York Times bestselling author

Edward Gibbon (Author), Bernard Mayes (Narrator)

Audiobook

Europe Audiobooks in Travel