Art audiobooks

The War for Late Night

By: Bill Carter

Narrated by: Sean Kenin

Length: 15 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

A dramatic account of the politics and personalities behind NBC's calamitous attempt to reinvent late-night television.

When NBC decided to move Jay Leno into prime time to make room for Conan O'Brien to host the Tonight show-a job he had been promised five years earlier-skeptics anticipated a train wreck for the ages. It took, in fact, only a... Read more

Simple Times

By: Amy Sedaris

Narrated by: Amy Sedaris

Length: 2 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestselling craft guide that inspired the hit new TV show, At Home With Amy Sedaris

It's often been said that ugly people craft and attractive people have sex. In Simple Times, Amy Sedaris sets the record straight and delivers a book that will forever change the world of crafting. Demonstrating that crafting is one of life's... Read more

Road Wife

By: Eoin McNamee

Narrated by: Stuart Graham & Su-Lin Looi

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation written by Eoin McNamee, originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 23 March 2009. A truck driver in Ireland gives a lift to a female Asian hitchhiker but gets more than he bargained for, especially when his truck is stopped by immigration officers and he and his illegal occupant are taken in for... Read more

Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, The (BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play)

By: L. Frank Baum

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Linda Marshall’s BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of L. Frank Baum's children's classic, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. Originally broadcast as part of the BBC Christmas 2009 season. When a tornado strikes her farmhouse in Kansas, young Dorothy and her dog Toto are lifted to the magical world of Oz, the strange land of the Munchkins. There... Read more

The Misunderstanding Of Glencoe

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Paul Smith, Kenny Blyth & Full Cast

Length: 27 minutes

Abridged: No

A full-cast BBC Radio Scotland comedy dramatisation written by Alexander McCall Smith. An Edinburgh couple on holiday in the Highlands discover that centuries-old tensions are still very near the surface. Starring John Buick, Kenny Blyth, Monica Gibb and Paul Young. Read more

Double Science (BBC Radio 4 Comedy)

By: Ben Willbond & Justin Edwards

Narrated by: Ben Willbond, Full Cast, Justin Edwards & Rebec...

Length: 2 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Here are all six episodes of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom written by and starring Ben Willbond and Justin Edwards about two incompetent science teachers who work at a college that specialises in drama, and whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of a new boss. Forresters Sixth Form College has a highly successful drama department run by the... Read more

Night They Tried To Kidnap The Prime Minister, The (BBC R4)

By: Martin Jameson

Narrated by: Tim McInnerny, Benjamin Askew, Michelle Duncan ...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

This full-cast dramatisation by Martin Jameson for BBC Radio 4 is a fictionalised account of the incident in 1964 when a group of students attempted to kidnap the then-Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, in Scotland. Originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 15 July 2009, this dramatisation stars Tim McInnerny as Sir Alec, Chris Starkie... Read more

Accomplices

By: Simon Passmore

Narrated by: Claudia Harrison, Stephen Hogan, Lizzy Watts & ...

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

This BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation is a captivating thriller written by Simon Passmore, originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 29 June 2009. What would you be prepared to do to escape the grind of a life going relentlessly downhill? For former City lawyer Alice, the price is getting higher by the minute. Stars Claudia Harrison in... Read more

Alistair Cooke's America

By: Alistair Cooke

Narrated by: Peter Marinker

Length: 14 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

For years legendary broadcaster Alistair Cooke brought America to the rest of the world with incomparable wit and wisdom. This is his classic "personal history" of America, guiding us through centuries of changing life in the USA. Beginning with his own arrival in America as a graduate in the 1930s, Alistair Cooke discusses the explorers who... Read more

Kenneth Williams' Stop Messing About (Classic BBC Radio Comedy)

By: Myles Rudge

Narrated by: Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick & Joan Sims

Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

Abridged: No

‘Stop Messing About - the first all-nude radio show. Nervous listeners are advised to keep their eyes closed... and it’s forbidden to take photographs.’ Taking over the mantle of 'Round the Horne', 'Stop Messing About' carried on the comedy tradition, which reunited Kenneth Williams with his 'Carry On' co-star Joan Sims and Hugh Paddick. These... Read more

Nine Days Queen, The BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play)

By: Amanda Whittington

Narrated by: Loo Brealey & Emma Stansfield

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation written by Amanda Whittington, originally broadcast as the Afternoon Play on 23 February 2009. The tumultuous tale of the trial of Lady Jane Grey, proclaimed Queen of England in 1553 at the age of 16, nine days later locked in the Tower and, within a year, dead. ‘Loo Brealey puts in a superb performance’... Read more

Tinsel Tales

By: NPR

Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Ho ho ho! Here’s what to listen to while driving to the mall, wrapping gifts, entertaining friends, or relaxing in front of a crackling holiday fire.

In Scott Simon’s modern version of the Christmas story, Jesus is born in an abandoned factory near Cleveland and the Three Wise Persons bring Chipotle gift cards. Claudia Sanchez gives a Latin... Read more

Johnners' It's Been A Lot Of Fun - Abridged

By: Brian Johnston

Narrated by: Brian Johnston

Length: 1 hour 15 minutes

Abridged: Yes

When Brian Johnston died in 1994 at the age of 81, the Daily Telegraph described him as ‘the greatest natural broadcaster of them all’. In this delightful reading from his autobiography 'It’s Been a Lot of Fun', Brian recalls his schooldays at Eton and Oxford, his early career in the family coffee business in the City, Hamburg and Brazil, and... Read more

Age Of Innocence

By: Edith Wharton

Narrated by: Andrew Wincott, Full Cast & Susanne Bertish

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A full-cast dramatisation of Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a passionate love affair which breaks all the rules of the restrictive high society of 1870s New York. In the exclusive world of upper-class New York, in which attendance at balls and dinner passes for occupation, Newland Archer anticipates his marriage to May... Read more

Two On A Tower (Bbc Radio 4 Classic Serial)

By: Thomas Hardy

Narrated by: Blake Ritson & Maggie O'Neill

Length: 9 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation by Jon Sen of Thomas Hardy's tragic tale of star-crossed lovers in the West Country.

'Two on a Tower' is Hardy's ninth novel and contains perhaps his most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide, and also the fullest expression of his fascination with astronomy and science. ... Read more

The Good Soldier Svejk

By: Jaroslav Hasek

Narrated by: Sam Kelly & Adrian Lukis

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation by Christopher Reason of the satirical Czech novel by Jaroslav Hasek. This tale charts the exploits during the First World War of 'European Forrest Gump', Svejk, in his progress through the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army. Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech... Read more

Orley Farm (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial)

By: Anthony Trollope

Narrated by: Full Cast, Samantha Bond & Tim Pigott-Smith

Length: 2 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

This novel, described as a '... brilliantly choreographed legal thriller' (Mail on Sunday), centres on the pathos of the main character, Lady Mason. Youthful marriage choices, middle-aged marital crisis, love and loss revolve around the legal action and the complex portrayal of Lady Mason, who is both sympathetic and wily. The novel proposes a... Read more

Chaucer's Troilus And Criseyde

By: Geoffrey Chaucer

Narrated by: Tom Ferguson & Maxine Peake

Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde' by poet and writer Lavinia Greenlaw. One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic disillusionment. Lavinia Greenlaw's new version for... Read more

Mr Larkin's Awkward Day

By: Chris Harrald

Narrated by: Adrian Scarborough, Anne Reid & Lynne Verrall

Length: 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Chris Harrald's Sony Radio Academy Award-winning play takes a light-hearted look at a chaotic day in the life of an emerging poet. One morning in September 1957, Philip Larkin receives a very official looking letter which sends him into a spin. The events that unfold provide a delicious insight into Philip's character, with a tremendous sense of... Read more

Old Sweet Songs

By: Garrison Keillor

Length: 1 hour 57 minutes

Abridged: No

On July 6, 1974, about a dozen people made their way to the Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College in St. Paul for the first broadcast of a new radio show. Things went pretty well, so Garrison Keillor and his team produced another show, then another . . . close to 500 in the first 10 years alone.

Today A Prairie Home Companion is heard... Read more

The Elephant to Hollywood

By: Michael Caine

Narrated by: Michael Caine

Length: 10 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Charming, engaging, and surprisingly forthright, Michael Caine gives us his insider's view of Hollywood and the story of his brilliant second act

When he was in his late fifties, Michael Caine believed his glamorous, rags-to-riches Hollywood career had come to an end. The scripts being sent his way were worse and worse. When one script really... Read more

The Elephant to Hollywoo - Abridged

By: Michael Caine

Narrated by: Michael Caine

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

Charming, engaging, and surprisingly forthright, Michael Caine gives us his insider's view of Hollywood and the story of his brilliant second act When he was in his late fifties, Michael Caine believed his glamorous, rags-to-riches Hollywood career had come to an end. The scripts being sent his way were worse and worse. When one script really... Read more

NPR: The First Forty Years

By: NPR

Length: 4 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

NPR was created in 1970, three years after Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act and established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Signing the act into law, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “We in America have an appetite for excellence . . . we want most of all to enrich man’s spirit.” Today NPR produces and distributes... Read more

When Janey Comes Marching Home

By: Laura Browder

Narrated by: a full cast

Length: 4 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Women are officially barred from combat in the American armed services, yet in today's wars, where there are no front lines, the ban on combat is virtually meaningless. More than in any previous conflict in our history, American women are engaging with the enemy, suffering injuries, and even sacrificing their lives in the line of duty.When Janey... Read more