Showing results by narrator "Christian Rodska" in All Categories

Winston Churchill's superlative account of the prelude to and events of the First World War is a defining work of 20th-century history. With dramatic narrative power Churchill reconstructs the action on the Western and Eastern Fronts, the wars at sea and in the air and the advent of tanks and U-boats. Rich with personal insights, this second part of Churchill's magisterial book covers the year 1915.

Scottish author George MacDonald Fraser took the loutish bully from Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown's Schooldays and gave him a new lease of life. Over the course of 12 novels, caddish anti-hero Flashman swashbuckled his way around the British Empire, playing a key role in some of the 19th century’s most significant events.

Thomas Kydd has dragged himself up in the navy from press-ganged seaman to captain of his own ship. Now he faces disgrace. After offending a general and suffering a personal tragedy, Kydd is sent to guard the Channel Islands. His career in tatters, he then makes a terrible enemy on his own side. When he is brutally betrayed off the Normandy coast, only his old friend, Renzi, is willing to stick by him.

Thomas Kydd, a hero of Trafalgar, holds the glory of being Post-Captain of the 32-gun frigate, L'Aurore. A Caribbean posting seems a welcome respite for the war hero, but when more and more merchantmen begin vanishing from the sea, fear starts to spread. Kydd must embark on a dangerous game of espionage in order to destroy this new and terrible danger to the Empire.

The 19th novel in Julian Stockwin's acclaimed Captain Kydd series. It's 1808. Parted from his new bride, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd is called away to join the Northern Expedition to Sweden, now Britain's only ally in the Baltic. Following the sudden declaration of war by Russia, and with the consequent threat of the czar's great fleet in St Petersburg, the expedition must defend Britain's dearly won freedom in those waters. However, Kydd finds his popular fame as a frigate captain is a poisoned chalice....

A familly in turmoil. A country in crisis. All debts must be settled. Detective Inspector for homicide, Sarah Lund, is contacted by old flame Mathias Borch from National Intelligence. Borch fears that what first appeared to be a random killing at the docks is the beginning of an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Troels Hartmann. The murder draws attention towards the shipping and oil giant, Zeeland, run by billionaire Robert Zeuthen.

It is two years since Thomas Paine Kydd was spirited away in the night to serve his country aboard the 'Duke William'. Now, with his friend Nicholas Renzi and crew members from the 'Artemis', Tom is a shipwrecked sailor back in the land of his birth.

Commander Thomas Kydd is eager to play his part in thwarting Bonaparte’s plans for the invasion of England. Joining Admiral Nelson’s command, Kydd and his ship soon find themselves at the heart of the action that leads up to the famous clash of the mighty British and French fleets at Trafalgar.Kydd’s journey takes him from false sightings of the enemy and dramatic chases across the Atlantic, to the bloody annihilation of the enemy during the actual battle, and the heroic aftermath.

In Roman times, the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World held a deep fascination. Two of them were in Egypt: the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Lighthouse at Alexandria. Marcus Didius Falco's wife Helena Justina is determined to see them before her next confinement. Conveniently, he has an uncle with a house in Alexandria. For this innocent reason (he says) they sail to Egypt. As soon as they arrive in Alexandria, a suspicious death occurs at the famous Great Library.

Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? Every year, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien would write to Father Christmas, and the letters they received told wonderful stories of his adventures at the North Pole. These humorous tales are brought to life by Derek Jacobi as Father Christmas, John Moffatt as Polar Bear, and Christian Rodska as Ilbereth the Elf, complete with specially composed music.

Nottingham Bumstead – otherwise known as Snotty – may be small and weedy, but his life is fun because he lives ALONE! Without parents to nag him his house is his own, with a football pitch in the living room and juke boxes in the bedroom.Of course there are one or two hitches – like what to do when the money for milkshakes and pizzas runs out – but as long as he can pay the bills and keep out the neighbours, then he can keep his home just as he likes!

Gazza's tears in the 1990 World Cup semi-final launched the boom of interest in football that continues to this day. Suddenly, Paul Gascoigne found himself the centre of attention in a way that only George Best and David Beckham have ever experienced. So much has been written about Gazza over the years, but he has said little - until now. For the first time, he talks in depth about the key events in his life.

Thirty nine steps rose from the busy road of Tuborgvej into Mindelunden, with its quiet graves and abiding bitter memories. Lennart Brix, head of the Copenhagen homicide team, felt he’d been walking those most of his life. Beneath the entrance arch, sheltering from the icy rain, he couldn’t help but recall that first visit almost fifty years before. A five-year-old boy, clutching the hand of his father, barely able to imagine what he was about see…

England, 1647. Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army has routed the Royalists, and the king, having fled to Scotland, has been ransomed, sent back across the border and imprisoned. It seems the war is over, but there is trouble ahead. Parliament wants to disband the army and install its own militia - an act that looks, to Cromwell's loyal soldiers, like outright betrayal.

This BBC Radio collection includes the Booker nominated A Month in the Country. Be transported to the Yorkshire village of Oxgodby where, in the aftermath of the First World War, survivor Tom Birkin spends a summer uncovering a medieval mural in the local church.

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire. Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull. Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection.

It is 1819, and Captain Adam Bolitho is ordered once again to Freetown in West Africa with secret orders for the senior officer there. The slave trade has been outlawed by many nations, but a hundred thousand slaves are still shipped out annually, the profit for slavers considered worth the risk of interception by the Royal Navy. For Adam, newly married and as fiery as ever, Africa will bring reunions and unexpected allies, and a treachery that wears the mask of friendship, and threatens the very heart of all he loves.

This is the story of a rifleman's resourcefulness in a single-handed war against the forces of Napoleon. Separated from his regiment, he uses a band of undisciplined Portuguese guerrillas to battle his way back to his own lines.

Bobby Charlton is Manchester United through and through. He was a member of the original "Busby Babes" and has devoted his career to the club, playing in 754 games over 17 years. During that period he won everything the game had to offer, played alongside such greats as Best and Law, suffered devastating defeats, and was involved in one of the greatest football tragedies of all time. Here, for the very first time, he tells the story of those United years.

Homeless, frightened and alone, Link finds himself down and out in London. He survives only because he is befriended by the streetwise Ginger, then Ginger disappears. Other kids are vanishing, too. Will Link be the next victim?