Art audiobooks

Beasts On The Lawn

By: Saki

Narrated by: Full Cast & Pippa Haywood

Length: 1 hour 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Beasts on the Lawn is a collection of Edwardian short stories by Saki (H. H. Munro) recycled and restaged in a modern day gated community for the far too wealthy for their own good. The tales are woven together by the character of Clovis, a security guard. She recalls the events of strange days and long nights. The five stories are: Tobermory,... Read more

Nineteen Eighty-Four

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster and the Thought Police uncover each act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that... Read more

Mark Watson's Live Address To The Nation (Complete)

By: Mark Watson

Narrated by: Mark Watson, Tim Key & Tom Basden

Length: 2 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Following on from his hugely successful show Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better, Mark Watson's new series reignites his quest to improve the world, nimbly assisted by Tim Key and Tom Basden and with the additional help of the listening audience. Mark asks the big questions that are crucial to our understanding of ourselves and... Read more

David Jason: My Life

By: David Jason

Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens

Length: 12 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

David Jason: My Life, now available as an unabridged audiobook.

National Book Awards Autobiography of the Year 2013.

Born the son of a Billingsgate market porter at the height of the Second World War, David Jason spent his early life dodging bombs and bullies, both with impish good timing. Giving up on an unloved career as an electrician, he... Read more

Easily Distracted

By: Steve Coogan

Narrated by: Steve Coogan

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Steve Coogan was born and raised in Manchester in the 1960s, the fourth of six children. From an early age he entertained his family with impressions and was often told he should 'be on the telly'. Failing to get into any of the London-based drama schools, he accepted a place at Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre and before graduating had... Read more

O. Henry Stories

By: O. Henry

Narrated by: John Gerrasio

Length: 40 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of three Christmas classics by a cherished American writer, to warm the soul and intrigue the listener with satisfyingly unexpected plot twists.

Episode 1: The Gift Of The Magi
A young couple struggle to find the money for a really special Christmas present for each other.

Episode 2: Mammon And The Archer
A young man is encouraged to... Read more

The Degner Defection

By: Stephen Evans

Narrated by: Stephen Evans

Length: 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Fifty years ago a dashing, ultra-talented motorbike racer planned to escape from Communist East Germany at the height of the Cold War. Award-winning presenter Stephen Evans tells how Degner, a hero in his homeland, risked everything including the life of his young family to flee to the west, taking with him groundbreaking technology developed... Read more

Miracles R Us

By: Lesley Bruce

Narrated by: Anna Massey & Full Cast

Length: 1 hour 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Caroline is running Household Solutions on her own from the student rooms she is renting - just leaflets through doors, offering a family back-up service. Then she meets Sylvia, who is sure she could be helpful to the business. Caroline is sure she couldn't. But Sylvia persists and gradually, throughout this BBC Radio series, a mutual respect is... Read more

Angela Carter's Love Affair With Radio

By: Charlotte Crofts

Narrated by: Charlotte Crofts

Length: 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Angela Carter's relationship with radio began with an accidental sound effect. She went on to write two docu-dramas, Come Unto These Yellow Sands (about the Victorian painter Richard Dadd) and A Self-Made Man (about Edwardian novelist Ronald Firbank) and re-worked two of her short stories into radio plays. Carter loved radio's technical... Read more

Waiting For The Boatman

By: Stephen Wakelam

Narrated by: Anton Lesser, David Tennant, Harry Livingstone,...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The painter Mario Minniti has travelled to Naples to seek out his old friend and former mentor Caravaggio. But on arrival, the great painter is nowhere to be found. In a bid to find him, Mario retraces Caravaggio's last known movements. His search reveals a life lived dangerously. Starring David Tennant as Mario Minniti, with Anton Lesser, Peter... Read more

The History Plays

By: Nigel Smith

Narrated by: Blake Harrison, Daniel Rigby, Fiona Allen, Imel...

Length: 2 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

The History Plays is a series of five two-hander plays by Vent author Nigel Smith, which are imagined conversations at key moments in recent history, moments that have permanently changed the British psyche.

Starting with Mick Jagger's conviction for drug possession; through the fragmented morality of John Stonehouse; the Indian summer of... Read more

Leap Year Tales

By: Laura Marney, Ruth Thomas & Alan Spence

Narrated by: Gabriel Quigley, John Buick & Melody Grove

Length: 40 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of three stories to mark the Leap Year by Laura Marney, Ruth Thomas and Alan Spence.

The Leap Year Tales are:

'Aw Wrong' by Laura Marney
Facing the imminent birth of their first child, a couple take steps to try to influence the course of nature.
Read by Gabriel Quigley.

'February Alone' by Ruth Thomas
An intended romantic lunch goes... Read more

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance®

By: Robert M. Pirsig & Peter Flannery

Narrated by: James Purefoy & Full Cast

Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

Abridged: No

An odyssey into life’s challenging questions during an unforgettable summer motorcycle trip

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance became an instant bestseller upon its publication in 1974. A powerful examination of how we live, as well as a... Read more

Doctor Who At The BBC: Lost Treasures

By: David Darlington

Narrated by: Louise Jameson & Various

Length: 2 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Do you remember when the Fourth Doctor called in on Pete Murray's Open House? Or when Louise Jameson was menaced by a Dalek on BBC Radio Bristol? Do you remember when June Whitfield auditioned a Dalek? If these things passed you by in the 1970s and 1980s, now's your chance to catch up! Featuring rare recordings from the BBC archives and beyond,... Read more

Being Human

By: Simon Guerrier

Narrated by: Full Cast & Lenora Crichlow

Length: 5 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Annie has learned quite a bit about her new friend Gemma: she's from Bristol, she used to work in a pharmacy, and she's never forgiven herself for the suicide of her teenage son. She also died ten years ago and doesn't know why she's come back through that door. Perhaps it has something to do with the new road they're building through the... Read more

A Christmas Carol

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Tom Baker

Length: 3 hours

Abridged: No

Tom Baker reads Charles Dickens' timeless seasonal story.

Charles Dickens' story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, has become one of the timeless classics of English literature. First published in 1843, it introduces us not only to Scrooge... Read more

Touchline Tales

By: Des Lynam

Narrated by: Des Lynam

Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Four selected episodes from the two BBC Radio 4 series of Touchline Tales. In these programmes, old friends Des Lynam and Christopher Matthew visit some famous sporting venues to enjoy, observe, reminisce, and trade tales. Read more

Blackadder: The Complete Collected Series

By: Ben Elton & Richard Curtis

Narrated by: Full Cast, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Rik...

Length: 15 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The complete soundtracks of all four Blackadder series, plus over three hours of specials and extras

Through the ages of Britain, from the 15th century to the 21st, Edmund Blackadder has meddled his way along the bloodlines, aided by his two imbecilic sidekicks, Lord Percy and Baldrick, and hindered by an assortment of dimwitted aristocrats. With... Read more

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

By: Washington Irving

Narrated by: Martin Jarvis

Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

Abridged: No

The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (based on Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old... Read more

Neverwhere

By: Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: Anthony Head, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher...

Length: 3 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere... An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into the strange world of London Below. There he meets the Earl of Earl's Court, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the... Read more

The Grapes Of Wrath

By: John Steinbeck

Narrated by: Robert Sheehan, Michelle Fairley & Zubin Varla

Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Set against the backdrop of America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl, a family of farmers from Oklahoma head west in search of work, only to discover thousands like them are also on the move. Following a violent altercation with some locals, they head back on the road with their dream of a promised land in tatters. And life is set to get much... Read more

Europe - The Art Of Austerity

By: Michael Goldfarb

Narrated by: Full Cast & Michael Goldfarb

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Michael Goldfarb looks back to the Europe of the 1930s and asks how artists, writers and film-makers responded to the poverty, mass unemployment and poltical instability of the Great Depression.

Through the work of Bertolt Brecht, George Orwell, Jean Renoir and others, Michael charts the devastating impact of the slump as economic crisis... Read more

King David

By: Various

Narrated by: Lee Ross & Claire Rushbrook

Length: 1 hour 30 minutes

Abridged: No

Dave has a pretty good life: his company is thriving, he's got a lovely wife, a big house, kids at private schools. But then he gets a bit careless and things start to go wrong. Katie Hims is well-known to Radio Four listeners for her many original dramas and adaptations on that network. Most recently she dramatised some of the MARTIN BECK... Read more

Mr. Men

By: Roger Hargreaves

Narrated by: Arthur Lowe

Length: 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Mr Funny's car is a shoe! It looks very funny when he drives to the zoo. But can he cheer up the animals? Mr Dizzy always gets things confused, until one day he happens upon a wishing well... Mr Bump tries his hand at many jobs, but keeps getting fired! Will he ever bump into one that's suitable for him? Mr Fussy is a fussy old fusspot who... Read more