Showing results by narrator "Charles Featherstone" in All Categories

Prepare for the most uproariously grim tour of Tudor England ever recorded! Gilbert Abbott A'Beckett's classic satire skewers the so-called "golden age" of English monarchy, revealing the Tudors as they truly were: a parade of tyrants, schemers, and royal disasters who treated their subjects like pawns in a deadly game of power.

Here are ten more traditional tales spanning Sherlock Holmes's illustrious career. Beginning with “The Matter of the Missing Mortician,” which London’s greatest detective solves without ever leaving his Baker Street sitting room to “The Conundrum of the Disputed Canvas,” which brings Holmes to Richmond Hill to resolve the authenticity of a painting of questionable origins. In between, an audacious new rival rises up to challenge Sherlock Holmes over two vexing cases. Then, an old enemy cleverly strikes at the hated detective from afar in “The Difficulty of the Distant Antagonist.

The great fantasy writer Lord Dunsany wrote very little in the way of fantasy after the onset of the First World War. This was partly because he was busy, having volunteered in 1915 and becoming a Captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Derry. However, the reality of the world bore in on our hero at this time, and it is not difficult to imagine that his heart moved to more serious concerns. Dunsany’s days of high fantasy, it seems, ended with the emergence of civil unrest in his nation.

Why do we write? What does it mean to be a writer? This book contains no useful tips on grammar, style, or plot. Instead, it focuses on the observation and perspective that is needed to be a good writer—on the fact that writing is an expression of the art of living. A lovely journey through a very Edwardian world.

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born into a very unusual situation in 1878. He was the eldest scion of a family that had lived in the oldest castle in Ireland since its construction in 1180 CE, and became the 18th Baron Dunsany in 1899 at the age of 21, when his father passed away. He was a soldier, lord, military trainer, propaganda writer, activist, and invented Dunsany’s Chess, in which one player has four ranks of pawns and no other pieces. He published mostly first drafts, writing short stories, fantasy novels, plays, and poems, with over 90 publications in his lifetime.

These are called '' Poems from the Chinese" and we have Mr. Waley's assurance that there are in existence Oriental originals.

There have been many translators of Chinese literature and poetry over time, but Arthur Waley stands out as one of the best known and most loved. This is perhaps because he had an attribute that most others lacked, which is his poetic abilities. Waley was as much a poet himself as a translator, and while his scholarly erudition was matched by a few others at his time, none ever managed to bring out the true character of Chinese poetry quite so well.

In 1638, in the first age of modern astronomy, as the starts opened up to us, the scientists of the time found themselves bound into fantastical visions based on their new knowledge. This was perhaps the first 'hard' sci fi, at least based on the cutting edge of knowledge from the time. Drawing on contemporary theories of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Gilbert, the inhabitants of the Moon in this story are a tall Christian people encountered by a roguish hero who must learn of their lands, and gains items that allow the control of light, heat, and gravity.

A great primer on the history of Japanese art as it evolved under the Buddhist (and later Zen) movements embedding in Japan's culture. Written by the first great populariser of Chinese and Japanese cultural artefacts, including translating a great number of Chinese poems and literary works.

One of the four central works in Daoism. The Lie-Tzu, or Liezi, was originally thought to have been composed in the same period as the Dao and Zhuang Zi, around the 5th century BCE. However, it is now believed to have been compiled nearly a thousand years later, around 400 CE.

A thrilling tale of the Devil's final ride between the darkness and dawn, watching as mankind falls victim to the curse of progress and speed, rejecting all peace and silence, all reflection and godliness. As he goes, he gathers phantoms and monsters, hell-bound victims and dark shadows, all the while telling the natural world to rejoice, for it will soon be free of the curse of Man. Written in 1910, this Christian tome is as relevant today as it was a century ago, as people fall victim to the next and fastest thing, falling away from God in the process.

Marie Corelli is best known as a novelist, but was always a poet at heart, composing on her strongest passions, whether for love, nature, God, or country. This volume collects poems from across her bestselling books and across her career, curated by Brenda Vyver, her her 'companion' of 40 years, who she left everything to when she died, and who is buried alongside her in a twin grave. It is perhaps worth noting that Brenda drove much of Corelli's work, which ran heavy to erotic descriptions of women.

This collection contains five speeches from a millennium shaped by faith and empire.

"I hate God!" Said Angel. And having made this un-angel-like statement, she folded her short arms across her breast and surveyed her horrified audience defiantly. So begins a tale of a poor child's expulsion from Sunday school for the cruelties of a God who would allow her parents to die, and her life to be one of unending misery.

No discussion of the 19th Century is complete without Napoleon. We begin with Charles Phillips’ eulogy, summarizing the strangeness and contradiction of the most influential man of his time. Followed by 7 brief speeches by Napoleon himself.

This audiobook contains the five speeches from the legendary orators Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Pericles.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Alarms and Discursions and enjoy GK Chesterton's prolific writing.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Alarms and Discursions and enjoy GK Chesterton's prolific writing.

There are artists out there able to lift the spirits of the downtrodden, who point towards a better world with all they are. Sometimes, they do this in DIY punk style: raw, unplugged, and deeply human. Patrick Schneeweis, better known as Pat the Bunny, is an artist who chose the road less travelled, instinctively deeming it more honest and less controlling. Freer. He grew up in Vermont, where he found people liked his voice and the controversial topics he tackled, and by 16 years old, he had released his first album ‘Fire Hazard’.

The tale of King Alfred, the Christian king who in 878AD battled a Viking invasion that had conquered the rest of England and burnt some cakes. He then became the last holdout of resistance against the invaders and forced the conversion of the Danish king Guthrum to Christianity after the battle of Ethandun.