Showing results by narrator "Mitchley Richard" in All Categories

Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze river. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper. In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation.

Elizabeth Gaskell is equally well known as Mrs Gaskell. When her mother died, she was three months old and she was sent to live in Knutsford, Cheshire with her Aunt Hannah, this setting would become the basis for her novel Cranford.

Are the dinner ladies at your school rough and tough? Do they pour vats of hot soup over innocent children? It was exactly the same at Littlehampton Primary where Plughole, owner of the World's Weirdest Laugh, went to school.

In this series we listen to short stories that are NOT by perhaps the most well-known author of this type. But the many other rich talents in the volume may have treated the subject matter a little differently, or were perhaps just overlooked in the stampede to applaud the winner, but these authors are of equal merit. Each of their works is laden with talent, has purpose, and is rich and textured in this gloried niche of literature.

In this volume we gather together those 17th Century poets and their poems which took poetry in a different but very revealing direction, with their artistry and verse.

Dictionaries summon up many words, but none fulfill. Love itself is often ethereal, felt but only seen in a glance, a look, a fleeting touch. Part of love’s beauty is perhaps in the fact that the question never can be adequately answered; it's ephemeral, a chimera of the heart and only felt. Our own experiences are unique and personal to ourselves and of little help defining it for another.

Favourite songs and rhymes to join in and have fun with! A fantastic collection of twenty songs, nursery rhymes, stories, puzzles and tongue-twisters performed by Sophie Aldred and Richard Mitchley. Join in with actions, words and games! The songs and rhymes include: The Animal Fair The Bear...

Love has many forms, many needs. Some fall into the dark, into the shadows. Forbidden love has connotations of desire, of possession but also of matters far more unsavoury. It’s a delicate facet of love that our classic authors explain with careful words and superbly crafted narratives.

Kabir, meaning "Great" and one of the 99 names of God in Arabic, was a mystic and poet, born around 1440 in Varanasi to poor Muslim parents. Another account claims he was the child of a Brahmin widow. He himself said he was "at once the child of Allah and Ram". Kabir grew up learning his father’s craft of weaving and overcame many obstacles to become a disciple of Saint, or Swami, Ramananda, the leading pioneer of the Bhakti movement, which promoted salvation for all.

Conversations happen everywhere. A few words to pass the time or a detailed examination of views. But on trains they seem to be different. Speaking whilst in motion gives the whole discussion a momentum that often takes us into uncharted territory.

In this volume we listen to the world through the eyes and words of the English Romantics. This very special poetical period is filled with the loving and tender verse of poets who still beguile us all with their beauty.

Thomas Burke was born Sydney Thomas Burke on November 29th, 1886 in Eltham, London (at the time it was part of Kent). An author in the early years of the century who brought his skills of pen and eye to parts of London, specifically the Limehouse district of the East End, and wrote with drive and vigour about the characters he met and the places that he knew.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. The zenith of Empire is bookended by two catastrophic wars that slaughter vast swathes of humanity. And yet authors manage to record and create fragile libraries of humanity, its talents, its dreams and increasingly its nightmares.

Robert FitzStephen is a warrior down on his luck. Arrogant, cold, but a brilliant soldier, FitzStephen commands a castle despite his checkered lineage. When a Welsh rebellion brings defeat and a crippling siege, FitzStephen's highborn comrades scorn him, betraying him to the enemy. A hostage of his cousin, Prince Rhys, FitzStephen is disgraced and seemingly doomed to a life of obscurity and shame.

'You'll be sorry when I'm dead.' That's what Harry said to his sister, before the incident with the lorry. And now he is just that - dead. And he wishes more than anything that he hadn't said it. He wishes he could say sorry. And say goodbye to everyone he left behind - his mum, his dad, his best friend Pete, even Jelly Donkins, the class bully. Now he's on the Other Side, waiting to move on to the Great Blue Yonder. But he doesn't know how to get there - until he meets Arthur.

Silence is rare in Nature. When we really listen, Nature is conducting symphonies of sound as her world goes about the day and night. Her invisible heartbeat is everywhere, for everyone. Our eyes are constantly bathed in the wonder of her ways, the soft drizzle of rain from soft grey clouds, the bleached harsh desert sand of a noon day, a wave caressing the shore, to the ravenous colours of a departing sunset. Indeed, whenever we look and listen to the vastness of our world Nature’s beauty is always there for us. In these 60 minutes Nature takes us through her world of wonder.

Love whether fleeting or of the ages, expressed with a look, a touch, or a thought is wanted by us all. Our classic poets did not surrender to the logic of the group or seek advice from others quick to blame but slow to embrace. Their legacy remains because it is true, because in that look, that touch, that thought, that display of words the heart remembers us and treasures us. Here are words and verse of love. For your ears, your loved one’s ears and hearts everywhere.

In January 1866 Hopkins composed his most ascetic poem, The Habit of Perfection, but a few days later he included poetry in the list of things to be given up for Lent. In July he decided to become a Catholic, and by May 1868 Hopkins firmly 'resolved to be religious'. Less than a week later, he made a bonfire of his poems and ceased to write for almost seven years.

In this volume we examine some of the short stories of William Makepeace Thackeray. The great author of Vanity Fair and The Luck of Barry Lyndon was born in India in 1811. At age five his father died, and his mother sent him back to England. His education was of the best, but he himself seemed unable to apply his talents to a rigorous work ethic. After a few years of marriage his wife began to suffer from depression and over the years became detached from reality.

This proud nation with its long history - sometimes rough, hewn from bleak landscapes, and sometimes gently soft from its comforting voices - has produced a long succession of artists and poets.

In the latter category, Louis MacNeice most probably stands pre-eminent; his words and phrasing are on a plane few can equal and most are in awe of. But in this volume we do put forward others who have their own words and voice to add to this rich tapestry.