Showing results by narrator "Frances Jeater" in All Categories

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

No great composer’s story is more predominantly happy than Haydn’s, though even his has its share of clouds. A classic rags-to-riches tale, it sees him move from humble beginnings through decades as a liveried servant to his emergence as the most popular and successful composer of his time. One of the healthiest and least neurotic artists in musical history, he did more than any other single figure to pioneer the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet - and he was the first truly great practitioner of each.

The Waves traces the lives of six friends from childhood to old age. It was written when Virginia Woolf was at the height of her experimental literary powers, and she allows each character to tell their own story, through powerful, poetic monologues. By listening to these voices struggling to impose order and meaning on their lives we are drawn into a literary journey which stunningly reproduces the complex, confusing and contradictory nature of human experience.

It’s the 1990s and the body positivity movement has a yet to be born. Graham Pitscottie dreams of one day becoming a presenter on Blue Peter. However, he is stuck replenishing the pick 'n' mix at Woolworths. By his own admission he is, ‘a bit of a fatso’, and because there are no fat Blue Peter presenters, he joins - at the insistence of his mother Soo - a slimming class run by Wendy Bottomley.

Here are the stories of nine great adventures and the lives of the men who took part in them. They pushed back the frontiers of man's knowledge of the world by their vision, courage, and sheer doggedness. They were very different people, from bold adventurers facing the unknown with enjoyment to careful, more scientific individuals. Their journeys are placed within their historical context, but also contain the words of the men themselves.

A collection of dramas set in South and Central America by acclaimed dramatist Mike Walker. An award-winning dramatist, author and feature writer, Mike Walker has written numerous original dramas for BBC Radio 4, including his epic chronicles Tsar, Caesar!, The Stuarts and Castle of the Hawk. Collected here are five of his gripping dramas from the 1980s and '90s, set around the Amazon rainforest and Nicaragua.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

Pleasures of the Garden begins in ancient China and ends on the Isle of Man; it admires both stately landscaped parks and a soap box full of red geraniums on a fire-escape. It shows that gardening is for everybody, whatever their resources.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

When Eleanor sets off for lunch at a seaside pub one glorious September day, she has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down. Divorced, and newly retired from a glamorous career in London, she is enthusiastic about the prospect of making a fresh start and enjoying gentler pace of life in the country. Then a near-fatal car crash changes everything.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.

This is a story from the Great Explorers collection.