Showing results by narrator "Alan Bennett" in All Categories

The complete audio collection of Alan Bennett's celebrated monologues, published together for the first time and performed by some of Britain's best actors. The Talking Heads monologues are widely regarded as one of Alan Bennett's finest dramatic achievements. First broadcast on BBC TV and BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and 1990s, they won a host of awards and huge popular acclaim, and remain among his most admired works today.

A meeting at Oxford University during World War II signalled the beginning of a lifelong friendship between two outstanding contributors to 20th century English literature: Philip Larkin, poet, and Kingsley Amis, the prolific novelist. Selected from correspondence written between 1943 and 1985, these letters offer an entertaining and illuminating insight into the prejudices, exasperations and in-jokes of two literary greats. A linking commentary complements the writers' own words.

Alan Bennett reads A. A. Milne's much-loved stories about a small bear and his friends. The collection includes Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner and A Party for Pooh. What is the connection between a bear of very little brain and a honey pot? Usually it's the very sticky paw of Winnie-the-Pooh, as he takes a break between adventures for a little something. In these stories, Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place, Eeyore loses a tail and Piglet meets a Heffalump.

Alan Bennett's selection of English verse by his favourite poets: Thomas Hardy, A.E. Housman, W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, and Philip Larkin is accompanied by his own enlivening commentary and was recorded before a live audience. In this personal anthology, Alan Bennett has chosen more than seventy poems by six well-loved poets, discussing the writers and their verse in his customary conversational style through anecdote, shrewd appraisal and spare but telling biographical detail.

One spring morning, Mole surfaces into the sunlight and warm grass of a great meadow. Rambling busily along the hedgerows, he comes to the edge of a river. Mole is entranced. Here on the river bank he meets the Water Rat. He meets Ratty's friends: Badger who lives in the Wild Wood and the incorrigible Toad of Toad Hall. A timeless tale of waterside Britain that has been loved by generations of children and acclaimed as a classic. Many of the original cast from Alan Bennett's acclaimed National Theatre production appear in this dramatization for BBC Radio 4.

A unique collection of eight Alan Bennett stories, read by the author. Alan Bennett is one of Britain's best-loved authors and an acclaimed storyteller. This exclusive compilation includes eight of his best tales, collected together for the first time. Here is his celebrated, iconic memoir 'The Lady in the Van'; as well as two fascinating autobiographical accounts of his family and childhood.

> The Wind in the Willows is the classic story featuring Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad (of Toad Hall). In Alice in Wonderland, when Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole, she embarks on a series of adventures with some of the most weird and wonderful characters ever encountered. In Through the Looking Glass, Alice sees another world in the looking glass and wishes she could go there.

When the Water Rat invites the unassuming Mole to spend his first day ever in a boat on the river, and wise Badger comes along for the ride as well, so begins a marvellous season of adventure for the three friends. Mr Toad (he of Toad Hall) completes a happy foursome, but his tendency to get into hot water leads him into some rather hair-raising scrapes of his own.

Alan Bennett reads these three enchanting Doctor Dolittle stories. Doctor Dolittle has an extraordinary talent - he can talk to the animals! Taught by his parrot, Polynesia, he is soon able to chat to every kind of creature - and his skill leads him into all sorts of adventures.

Alan Bennett narrates the latest installment of his diaries, as heard on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Following on from Alan Bennett's best-selling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences. At its heart is his latest published collection of diaries.

What is the connection between a Bear of Very Little Brain and a Honey Pot? Usually it's the very sticky paw of Winnie the Pooh, as he a takes a break between adventures for 'a little something. In these 5 stories, taken from the book Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place, Eeyore loses a tail, Piglet meets a Heffalump, Eeyore has a birthday and gets two presents, and an expedition is mounted to the North Pole!

Untold Stories, Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his best-selling Writing Home, brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last 10 years.

Maggie Smith stars in this BBC radio adaptation of Alan Bennett's highly acclaimed autobiographical stage play. An eccentric old lady moves into a quiet street in Camden Town. There she remains, installed in her van in glorious self-sufficiency, until the council instructs her to move on. Then a kind homeowner invites her to move her van into his garden - where she stays for the next 15 years.

Untold Stories, Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his best-selling Writing Home, brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last 10 years.

Two unexpected tales written and read by the best-selling author of The Uncommon Reader, Untold Stories and The History Boys."The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" - Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating…

Following on from the phenomenal success of Writing Home, Alan Bennett reminisces about his early years, from his schooldays to undergraduate life at Oxford University.

In these 5 stories, taken from the book The House at Pooh Corner, Pooh and Piglet build a house for Eeyore, Tigger comes to the Forest and has breakfast, Piglet nearly meets the Heffalump again, Pooh invents a new game and Owl moves house. As usual they are accompanied by Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Owl - to say nothing of Pooh's very clever young human friend, Christopher Robin.

Books 22-23 in the series that critics describe as "a wonderful blend of hope, humor, passion, romance, suspense, forgiveness and the stories make you feel like you are actually there!" In Book 22, Westward Sight: When Frankie Scorrano and D. J. Samuels meet, romance blossoms. But when a terrible illness strikes, leaving behind complications, will their love survive, or will it succumb to bitterness and despair?

A Common Assault describes an incident in Italy when he was mugged, and found himself trying to give a statement to the police in bad Italian. The History Boys harks back once more to Bennett's time at school, and shows how the raw material of experience was eventually transformed into the highly-acclaimed stage play The History Boys. Arise, Sir..., finishes on a light-hearted note, in which Bennett muses on the Honours List in typically iconoclastic mode.

The humorous and moving tale of Miss Shepherd, an eccentric old lady who, by a bizarre series of twists and turns, lived in the author's garden for many years. Alan Bennett reads his own acclaimed work, recently adapted as a West End smash hit starring Maggie Smith as the eccentric old lady.