Art audiobooks

Radio 4's History Of Private Life

By: Amanda Vickery

Narrated by: Amanda Vickery & Various

Length: 6 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Professor Amanda Vickery is one of the most charismatic historians in Britain today. In 'A History of Private Life' she reveals the intimate secrets of life at home, from the Tudor mansion to the modern bedsit. Through letters, diaries and other first-person accounts, we hear the voices of men and women from very different backgrounds telling... Read more

Under Milk Wood

By: Dylan Thomas

Narrated by: Full Cast & Richard Burton

Length: 1 hour 41 minutes

Abridged: No

'To begin at the beginning: it is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black...' When Richard Burton breathed the opening words of Under Milk Wood into a microphone, broadcasting history was made. For this 'play for voices' conjures up the intimate dreams and waking lives of the inhabitants of a Welsh seaside village in a... Read more

Matt Lucas And The Winner Is...

By: Matt Lucas

Narrated by: Matt Lucas

Length: 2 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Matt Lucas hosts the newest and most prestigious awards ceremony of the year - the perfectly-title 'Lucases'. Including awards for the Lamest Excuse of All-Time, the Lucas for Most Pointless Member of the Royal Family and the Lucas for Greatest Song By A Musical Artist Who Is Otherwise Rubbish. The nominations are provided by the guests, but... Read more

Balanchine Variations

By: Nancy Goldner

Narrated by: Celeste Lawson

Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

Artistic profile of one of the 20th century's great choreographers. The literature on Balanchine is vast, but it is primarily biographical. Balanchine Variations is the first book to concentrate on the ballets themselves, providing critical analysis and detailed descriptions of what the dancers actually do.Beginning with Apollo (1928),... Read more

My Life in Three Acts

By: Helen Hayes

Narrated by: James MacArthur

Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Helen Hayes, acclaimed “First Lady of the American Theatre,” has been on stage, screen, and television for more than fifty years. In that time she moved among the world’s most famous and talented, including Joan Crawford, William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Burton, Lillian Gish, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Gloria... Read more

Red Star over Hollywood

By: Ronald Radosh & Allis Radosh

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 10 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Until now, Hollywood’s political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the nightmare of the Red Scare and how it victimized political innocents. But Ronald and Allis Radosh tell for the first time the “backstory” behind this myth. They show how the Soviet Comintern targeted the film capital in the late... Read more

Role Models

By: John Waters

Narrated by: John Waters

Length: 7 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Role Models is filmmaker John Waters's self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities—some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the American playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair to... Read more

The Art Detective

By: Philip Mould

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 7 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

What separates a masterpiece from a piece of junk? Thanks to the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and its American spin-off, everyone is searching garage sales and hunting online for hidden gems, wondering whether their attics contain trash or treasures. In The Art Detective, Philip Mould, one of the world's foremost authorities on British portraiture... Read more

Seven Dirty Words

By: James Sullivan

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 10 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

In Seven Dirty Words, journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. A critical biography, Seven Dirty Words is an insightful (and, of course, hilarious) examination of Carlin's body... Read more

Made by Hand

By: Mark Frauenfelder

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 7 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

From his unique vantage point as editor in chief of Make magazine, the hub of the newly invigorated do-it-yourself (DIY) movement, Mark Frauenfelder takes listeners on an inspiring and surprising tour of the vibrant world of DIY. The Internet has brought together large communities of people who share ideas, tips, and blueprints for making... Read more

Priceless

By: Robert K. Wittman & John Shiffman

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 9 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.”
 
In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.... Read more

Armstrong And Miller Children's Hour

By: Alexander Armstrong & Ben Miller

Narrated by: Alexander Armstrong, Ben Miller & Guests

Length: 1 hour 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Pompous critics and culture journalists Martin Bain-Jones (Armstrong) and Craig Children (Miller), present a frightfully clever culture show, a wry look at the fringes of popular music. They’re hip, they’re happening – so they say – and in these four episodes they discuss Boy Bands (Peter Andre would be in a band if he had any mates), Middle... Read more

The Guns Of Navarone

By: Alistair MacLean

Narrated by: Toby Stephens

Length: 2 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

It is 1943. Two huge German guns in the grim, impregnable fortress on a huge beautiful island off the coast of Turkey are having a devastating impact on Allied shipping and preventing the evacuation of hard-pressed British troops from the nearby island of Kheros. The Germans are poised to overrun and unless the guns can be put out of action... Read more

NPR Sound Treks: Animals

By: NPR

Narrated by: Jon Hamilton

Length: 1 hour 9 minutes

Abridged: No

From rainforests to deserts, mountains to plains, the sea to the sky, animals raise their voices in an eclectic and thrilling chorus. This collection celebrates the unique calls of the keel-billed toucan, Guatemalan coatimundi, hammerhead bat, Central African elephant, urban katydid, and many more intriguing creatures whose sounds we seldom... Read more

NPR Sound Treks: Birds

By: NPR

Narrated by: Jon Hamilton

Length: 1 hour 1 minute

Abridged: No

Are birds monogamous? Why do kookaburras laugh? Is the ivory-billed woodpecker really extinct? These fascinating stories feature the delightful and exotic sounds of birds, plus astute and informative commentary from bird lovers, bird experts, and sometimes birds themselves.

Learn how naturalist F. Schuyler Matthews translated bird song into... Read more

Jo Caulfield Won't Shut Up Series 1

By: Kevin Anderson & Jo Caulfield

Narrated by: Jo Caulfield

Length: 1 hour 48 minutes

Abridged: No

She came, she saw, she criticised. Yes, this is the complete 4-part series where Jo Caulfield, 'the funniest female stand-up on Radio 4' presents her glorious mixture of bitchy friendliness, waspish likeability and foot-in-mouth populism - but always with charm. In the series, Jo is, as ever, failing to Shut Up about - love, marriage, dating,... Read more

NPR Sound Treks: Adventures

By: NPR

Narrated by: Jon Hamilton

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Experience a refreshing adrenaline rush on this NPR guided tour of the ultimate in outdoor fun: Whether whitewater rafting on the Hudson River, mountain climbing in the Himalayas, kayaking in Alaska, airboarding in Oregon’s Cascade mountains, or bungee jumping in Australia, each story is an amazing sound adventure—and a great escape.

The NPR... Read more

Magical, Combustible Words

By: Phil Cousineau

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

You'll love Cousineau's stories of the long journeys his favorite words have taken to find their way into our lives, and the provocative nuances hidden in the origins of others. You'll even find clues to how you can stop procrastinating, and finally finish that novel you've been working on, if only you can find the words. Read more

A Life in Comedy

By: Garrison Keillor

Length: 2 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

In April 2002, Garrison Keillor gave three live performances at the Yale Repertory Theatre, reading from a variety of his published and unpublished stories, novels, and essays. The award-winning radio personality and man behind the Lake Wobegon phenomenon presented his original musings on the life and times in which we live. Presenting one man,... Read more

Worst Laid Plans at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

By: Alexandra Lydon & Laura Kindred

Narrated by: Tymberlee Hill, Suz, Alexandra Lydon, Casey Wil...

Length: 1 hour 14 minutes

Abridged: No

“When bad sex happens to good people, there is no recourse like full disclosure,” is the motto of Worst Laid Plans, a comedy show staged at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the highly influential comedy organization co-founded by Amy Poehler. True stories of terrible sex imparted by the brave survivors who lived to tell, Worst Laid Plans is... Read more

Charles Paris: The Dead Side of the Mic

By: Simon Brett & Jeremy Front

Narrated by: Suzanne Burden, Full Cast, Charlotte Green & Bi...

Length: 1 hour 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Actor and reluctant sleuth Charles Paris is facing chaos on the domestic front. He's lodging with his ex-wife Frances, and now their pregnant daughter has moved in as well. It's all a bit much....

So he is over the moon when he lands a job on the BBC Radio Rep - but the ink is barely dry on his contract when a murder takes place in Broadcasting... Read more

Journey into Space: The Host

By: Charles Chilton

Narrated by: Alan Marriott, Chris Pavlo, David Jacobs, Full ...

Length: 1 hour 10 minutes

Abridged: No

A further BBC Radio episode of the classic science fiction series created by Charles Chilton.

In this exciting adventure, Jet Morgan and his crew receive a distress call from an abandoned space freighter. But when they board the ship, Jet and Doc discover a digitised personality locked inside the ship's computer - one with a deadly intent. The... Read more

Lives of the Artists

By: Kathleen Krull

Narrated by: John C. Brown & Melissa Hughes

Length: 2 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

In this entertaining, informative collection, listeners will discover the idiosyncrasies—sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic—of twenty famous artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Peter Bruegel, Sofonisba Anguissola, Rembrandt van Rijn, Katsushika Hokusai, Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, Käthe Kollwitz, Henri Matisse, Pablo... Read more

NPR Road Trips: Family Vacations

By: NPR

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Abridged: No

With generous splashes of popular culture and human interest, the NPR Road Trips series introduces you not only to far-off locations and unusual destinations, but to the people who inhabit them—and seek them out. Each story focuses on real locations, real people, and real history in the thought-provoking, imaginative and entertaining way you’ve... Read more