Showing results by narrator "Richard Auty" in All Categories

Earth. The distant future. An immense planetary ring dominates the sky, drowning the humbler stars in its borrowed light. Moulded by aeons, humans have evolved into diverse new forms. The people are born, they toil and they die, their lives at the mercy of theocratic edict and a flawed, implacable god.

Found guilty of stealing bread to feed his starving family, Michael McGuire is offered the “Queen’s Hard Bargain”, go to prison or join the army. He chooses the army and, after training in Dublin Castle, his life is changed forever as he is selected to join the Gordon Relief Expedition that is being sent south of Egypt to Khartoum, in the Sudan.

Hounded is an escape from the anxiety of reaching a half-century, written during the pandemic of 2020 and into the spring of 2021, during which comedy writer Vince Stadon experienced every film, TV, audio drama, spoken word reading, documentary, stage play, pastiche, graphic novel, animation, kids cartoon, and PC game version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

At midday on 31st August, Sedgewick, the new history master, arrives at Blindefellows, former charity school for poor, blind boys, now a second division private school for anyone who can pay. The naïve newcomer is quickly taken under the wing of the rumbustious, philandering Japes, master of physics, who soon becomes something of a mentor, though not in an academic sense.

Accepting an offer from his uncle, Lord Beddington, to learn about estate management, William Duncan gets involved in raising money to support their local hospital. After a series of unfortunate accidents to Lord Beddington and his wife, William is persuaded by his aunt’s rival on the council to enlist the help of his father, General Duncan, whose previous visit resulted in a yachting catastrophe, still remembered with anguish by his uncle. Her daughter, Lavinia, is coordinating the hospital PR campaign and sets out to trap William into marriage.

When a flock of crows invades their shared apartment block, farmer-turned-debt collector Ludovic and fashion designer Aurore speak for the first time. With nothing but the birds in common, the two are destined for separate lives, yet are drawn inexplicably together. As Aurore faces losing her business and Ludovic questions the ethics of his job, they begin a passionate affair. Love between such different people seems doomed to failure, but for these two unhappy souls trapped in ruthless worlds, perhaps loving one another is the greatest form of resistance.