Showing results by narrator "Simon Alison" in All Categories

I had been thrown most unwillingly back into the vicinity of Elizabeth Bennet's net. How often had I told myself I did not want to get caught by her? But of course I did. Fitzwilliam Darcy is hiding on the roof of a folly when he hears Elizabeth Bennet describe him as a man she could never love. It is, he will later reflect, not his finest hour.

After an anonymous encounter at a Hertfordshire assembly, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet conduct a secret courtship without knowing each other's identities—unaware that she is the paid companion to the cousin he jilted and that their families' intertwined fates will force them to choose between love and duty.

I signed my maiden name first before memorializing my new name. Elizabeth Madeline Darcy. Elizabeth Bennet lay dead on the altar of matrimony. HAVING SIGNED THE REGISTER as Elizabeth Darcy, the former Miss Elizabeth Bennet must somehow survive a crushing scandal as a stranger to herself. Her unwilling husband is so outraged to find himself tied to a person he thinks no better than a fortune hunter that she is forbidden to speak of the circumstances behind their union. Indeed, Mr. Darcy seems to loathe even the sound of her voice, and often Elizabeth's only recourse is to be silent.

Perhaps this concealment, this disguise, was beneath me… It is done, however, and it was done for the best. Elizabeth Bennet, walking in Kent the day after Mr Darcy’s proposal meets with an unfortunate mishap. A meeting with an adder has disastrous consequences for her and when she wakes from a period of unconsciousness, she has no memory at all of the last ten months of her life. To her complete shock she learns that she is engaged to a man called Darcy, a man she has no recollection of meeting before.

All of his efforts to forget her had failed, and he had accepted that some part of her would always be with him. In the winter of 1812, a fatal accident on a stormy night plunges the Bennet family into mourning and scandal. Shunned and isolated from nearly everyone they have ever known and loved each of the Bennet sisters hurries to marry, to provide themselves the respectability of married women. Miss Elizabeth Bennet settles into marriage of prudence with a man she respects but could never completely love.

Over 40 hours of pure joy from 3 narrators at the top of their game!

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.

When duty collides with desire, can love rewrite their fate?  Mr. Evander Addington had his life carefully mapped out—a quiet, predictable future as a Fellow at Oxford. But everything changed when his older brother unexpectedly passed away, making Evander the reluctant heir to an earldom...

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Hero is a duology comprised of two previously published novella length variations of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

One of Russia's most iconic poets, Alexander Pushkin is often described as the 'father of Russian literature'. A gambler, playboy and social reformer, he was exiled by the Tsar for his controversial poetry and died aged 37 in a duel defending his wife's honour. This BBC Radio anthology includes dramatisations and readings of Pushkin's most famous works - plus biographical programmes and an original play based on his life.

When Pope John XXIV is found dead in his bed just two years after his election, the world braces for a new conclave. But as the cardinal electors are sealed inside the Sistine Chapel, something unthinkable happens. Hours pass. No smoke rises. No vote is announced. And when Vatican Secretary of State Elisabetta Celestino breaks protocol to open the doors—she finds the chapel empty. The cardinals have vanished without a trace.

Detective Jen Price (Kerry Ellis: "Wicked"), desperate to feel like a hero again, pursues notorious jewel thief Jimmy Valentine (Hadley Fraser: "Phantom"). But when Jimmy falls for Annabel (Celinde Schoenmaker: "Guys and Dolls"), he changes his tune. Is it too late?

A riveting slow burn debut romantasy about morally grey, grief-fuelled, self-destructive, sarcastic young woman who enters deadly trials in the hopes of bringing her boyfriend back from the land of the deal, only to find herself torn between her true love and the King of the Fallen, perfect for...

A dark secret hangs over the Caribbean. Britain is at war with Napoleon, amid this chaos, a shadowy network acts against the common good. Lives hang in the balance while a young and ambitious lieutenant takes his new assignment aboard the H.M.S Valor. Circumstances soon lead him down a path, where he must weigh traditional judgement carefully. With sword and pistol in hand, he will confront his fate, where things are not as simple as they first appear, and the path of honor looks an awful lot like treason.

Thomas More is an enduringly fascinating and profoundly controversial figure. A brilliant scholar, his Utopia of 1516 dared to imagine how society might be completely reordered. At the same time, his hatred of the Reformation caused him to advocate, and seek to implement, the death penalty for...

Lin has dedicated his life to the faction’s cause—loyal, unwavering, and bound by honor. He followed orders. Protected the innocent. But when a companion he swore to protect is found slain under his watch, duty turns to disaster. Ambushed by monstrous abominations, Lin is left broken, bleeding, and betrayed by the sole comrade who remained. Left for dead, Lin wakes to find the wound that should have killed him stitched shut by outlawed sorcery. He should be grateful. Instead, he’s hunted. Marked. A traitor and monster in the eyes of the regime he once bled for.

Barney Snapp looks ordinary. But behind his smile lies something broken. Home-schooled and raised in isolation, Barney grew up role-playing with china dolls while other children played in the real world. Now an adult, he still struggles to understand human emotions, or to control his own. When...

The 7 Deadly Myths traces antisemitism from its earliest origins to the present day and uncovers the dangerous conspiracy theories that have corrupted reasoning and led people and nations to diabolical acts. Exploring some of the most significant events in history and uncovering little-known villains, this book answers the questions of how antisemitism takes hold, how it is transmitted, and how it inspires violence to the present day.

London, 1789. After a fire consumes the Theatre Royal, master showman Joseph Eliot is desperate to rebuild. His answer comes in the form of a strange, silent boy—his skin marked with tiger–like stripes—and a plan to turn curiosity into spectacle.

David Edgar is among the UK’s leading contemporary dramatists, well known for his powerful plays chronicling Britain's changing political landscape over the past 50 years. More than 60 of his original plays, adaptations and translations have been performed around the world, and in 2023 he was honoured with a Writers’ Guild Outstanding Contribution award for his service to British playwriting. This radio anthology contains some of his most notable work.