Short Stories audiobooks

The Young Man Who Stroked Cats

By: Morley Roberts

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Morley Roberts (1857-1942) was an English novelist and short story writer. In The Young Man Who Stroked Cats, Thomas Meredith finds himself the recipient of a very mysterious and unexpected gift. A Persian kitten in a basket. More mysterious still, the note accompanying it only reads: For the young man who strokes cats.

Thomas is indeed a... Read more

The Severed Hand

By: Wilhelm Hauff

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 31 minutes

Abridged: No

The narrator, Zaleukos, a native of Constantinople, studied medicine in Paris and, following his father's death, develops a successful business as a travelling merchant and healer.

Arriving in Florence, he sets up shop as usual. But after he has been in town a few days, he finds a small handwritten note from an unknown stranger, asking to meet... Read more

The Story of a Piebald Horse

By: W.H. Hudson

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 25 minutes

Abridged: No

W. H. Hudson (1862-1922) is best known for his stories, which give a vivid picture of South American life. He was a gifted naturalist and keen observer of wildlife and landscapes, as well as an acute and astute judge of humans and their characters.

In The Story of a Piebald Horse, a stranger appears at the cattle branding one day, and in an... Read more

The Clockmaker of Poissy

By: Stanley John Weyman

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Stanley John Weyman (1855-1928) was an English novelist most famous for his historical romances set in the turmoil of 16th- and 17th-century France.

In this story, when a position is granted to a member of the household of the King's beloved, which M. de Perrot had coveted for his own son, a round of intrigue begins. M. de Perrot enlists the... Read more

My Last Blind Date

By: Susan Hatler

Narrated by: Martha Lee

Length: 36 minutes

Abridged: No

A sweet short story about risking your heart to find love. It’s Valentine’s Day and Rachel Price has a choice: Stay home and watch TV with her loveable doggy or let her best friend, Ellen, set her up on a blind date. What to do…?
Ellen says the guy is a “10,” but the last guy she set her up with was a “–5.” Rachel’s been flirting with coworker... Read more

Great Australian Short Stories

By: Henry Lawson, Guy Boothby, Banjo Paterson & Joh...

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 3 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating collection of short stories by some of Australia's best classic writers:

"A Visit to Droughtland", by Banjo Paterson
"The Drover’s Wife", by Henry Lawson
"Hughey’s Dog", by Banjo Paterson
"A Professor of Egyptology", by Guy Boothby
"In the Cattle Country", by Banjo Paterson
"The Restless Dead", by Lord Halifax
... Read more

The Drover's Wife

By: Henry Lawson

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Henry Lawson's poignant tale of a woman bringing up her four children alone in the Australian outback. When her family is threatened by a venomous snake that has invaded their home, she (with the help of Alligator, the family's dog-of-all-breeds) must find a way to defend her children. Read more

A Visit to Droughtland

By: Banjo Paterson

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 11 minutes

Abridged: No

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (1864 – 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. This is his poignant description of a journey through the country during a period of severe drought in Australia, describing the rugged determination and imperfect grasp of basic economics of the "cockies" or rural settlers. Read more

Around the World in Eighty Tales

By: Various Authors

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 37 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

A breathtaking collection of eighty classic short stories inspired by different locations, people and customs across the globe.

Australia
1. A Visit to Droughtland by Banjo Paterson
2. The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson
3. Hughey’s Dog by Banjo Paterson
4. In the Cattle Country by Banjo Paterson
5. An Error of Judgement by John Barry
6. A Strange... Read more

The Mystery of Sasassa Valley

By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 28 minutes

Abridged: No

A couple of law students, Tom Donague and Jack Turnbull, who have run out of money, set off for South Africa to make their fortune. For three years, they fail to make any money, but then one day, as they are up country in a remote spot, their luck changes.

A friend, Dick Wharton appears unexpectedly one night during heavy rain, telling a strange... Read more

Hughey's Dog

By: Banjo Paterson

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 11 minutes

Abridged: No

Banjo Paterson's wry tale of a pugilistic sheep-worrying hound on a remote sheep station in Australia. When Hughey wants a dog "as can fight" the Super brings him Stumpy, a psychotic canine whose ability to murder other members of his own and other species is undisputed.

Hughey's dog becomes the sensation of the station, but when he is unleashed... Read more

Long Odds

By: H. Rider Haggard

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 36 minutes

Abridged: No

Allan Quatermain, or Hunter Quatermain as his friends call him, recounts his South African adventure of hunting four lions. Read more

The Walled Nun of Avila

By: S.G.C. Middlemore

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

An old Spanish ghost story about a former convent which is haunted by a young nun who fell in love and broke her vows. Her punishment was to be walled up alive. Her tormented ghost haunts the cloister...until one day the occupants decide to unbrick the wall where the nun died, and the family find something quite unexpected. Read more

Short Stories of the Great War

By: John Buchan, Sapper & Multiple Authors

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 5 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating collection of short stories by great writers that examine aspects of the first world war, from action in the trenches, to the psychological impact of war on individuals and their relationships, to heroic adventure stories, to ghosts and war graves. A wonderful collection!

"The King of Ypres", by John Buchan
"War", by Sherwood... Read more

The Truce of the Bear

By: Sapper

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

A British sniper is waiting in a shell-hole in no-mans land for his enemy. It is a battle of wits...the game of no mistakes. It takes the instinct of a hunter after a bear to spot the imperceptible movement, the chink of light and shift in the mud that reveals the movement of his enemy.

A tense tale in which we sit alongside the sniper, watching... Read more

The Serpent Woman

By: S.G.C. Middlemore

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 23 minutes

Abridged: No

When Don Juan returns home after years of travel, he brings with him a beautiful and mysterious young wife, Dona Pepa. Despite her beauty, Dona Pepa is mistrusted and disliked by everyone.

Several years after this, Don Juan invites his nephew, Don Luis, for an extended visit. Don Luis takes an instant dislike to his aunt. Moreover, he often sees... Read more

The King of Ypres

By: John Buchan

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Billeted away from the trenches for a week, Private Peter Galbraith suddenly finds himself separated from his retreating regiment and marooned in the town of Ypres in the face of the German advance. With the army gone, law and order has broken down in the town and looting and fighting is rife.

Private Galbraith takes it upon himself to... Read more

Spanish Folk Legends

By: S.G.C. Middlemore

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 3 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

A collection of fascinating legends from Spain, including ghost stories, forgotton crimes, unexplained mysteries, magic, and witchcraft.

"The Fire Spirit"
"The Fisherman"
"The Masked Ball"
"The Petrified Man"
"The Smuggler’s Daughter"
"The Serpent Woman"
"The Walled Nun of Avila"
"The Were-Wolf"
"The Castle of Jativa" Read more

Panzerkraftwagen

By: F. Britten Austin

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 42 minutes

Abridged: No

F. Britten Austin's famous story in which he imagines the scene as German soldiers on the Somme come face-to-face with Britain's new secret weapon...the first tanks. Read more

The Fire Spirit

By: S.G.C. Middlemore

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 36 minutes

Abridged: No

When the elderly widow Cipriana is visited by a strange and scary fire spirit, he tells her that he will help her to make her fortune. The weird elf tells her that he is responsible for fires all over the world and he tells her of a major fire that will break out in the city of Murcia in two weeks time. He advises Cipriana to go to the... Read more

The Greater Battle

By: Edgar Wallace

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Major Milton is in the thick of defending a key line in the trenches of Flanders, playing the key role of commanding the various positions from his field telephone system. But his attention is distracted by another, greater battle which is being fought on the home front... Read more

Hot Potatoes

By: Arnold Bennett

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 30 minutes

Abridged: No

When local musical prodigy, Gilbert Swann, is selected to play the violoncello with the visiting London orchestra during the musical festival in the five towns, his mother is convinced that he will be the cornerstone of the entire event.

When local dignitary Mrs. Clayton-Vernon invites Gilbert to dinner before the concert with her cousin, the... Read more

High Crime Area

By: Joyce Carol Oates

Narrated by: Donna Postel, Julia Whelan & Ray Chase

Length: 7 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

In the title story, a white aspiring professor is convinced she is being followed. No need to panic—she has a handgun stowed away in her purse, just in case. But when she turns to confront her black male shadow, the situation isn’t what she expects. In “The Rescuer,” a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save... Read more

The Kill Switch

By: James Rollins & Grant Blackwood

Narrated by: Scott Aiello

Length: 14 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

From bestselling authors James Rollins and Grant Blackwood, the first installment in an exciting new thriller series based on the Sigma Force novels featuring former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his partner, Army working dog Kane, introduced in the New York Times bestseller Bloodline and the e-original story "Tracker."Former Army Ranger Tucker... Read more