This audiobook is an anthology of poems by WH Auden, TS Eliot, Philip Larkin, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Rudyard Kipling, Sylvia Plath and W B Yeats, introduced by Josephine Hart and read by a cast of famous actors: Ralph Fiennes, Edward Fox, Ian McDiarmid, Helen McCrory, Sir Roger Moore, Harold Pinter, Elizabeth McGovern...
Sir John Betjeman's unique relationship with the BBC left a lasting legacy of poetry, readings and performances. "A First Class Collection" features a selection of some of his most memorable and best-loved poetry.
Miss Abigail Wendover's efforts to detach her spirited niece Fanny from a plausible fortune-hunter are complicated by the arrival in Bath of Miles Caverleigh. The black sheep of his family, a cynical, outrageous care-for-naught with a scandalous past – that would be a connection more shocking even than Fanny's...
Just after midnight, a snowdrift stopped the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train was surprisingly full for the time of the year. But by the morning there was one passenger fewer. An American lay dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.
For the first time on CD the unabridged audio edition of the cases that made up Hercule Poirot's formative years as a detective. Read by the inimitable Hugh Fraser and David Suchet. Still in the formative years of his career, Hercule Poirot faces a most taxing case: who killed Lord Cronshaw? Was Coco Courtenay’s...
Sunday Times number-one best seller Ian Rankin returns with his gripping new Rebus novel. Unabridged edition featuring a bonus interview with Ian Rankin and James MacPherson. Rebus is back on the force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. A 30-year-old case is being reopened, and Rebus' team from back then is suspected of foul play. With Malcolm Fox as the investigating officer, are the past and present about to collide in a shocking and...
Finding so young and pretty a girl as Amanda wandering unattended, Sir Gareth Ludlow knows it is his duty as a man of honour to restore her to her family. But it is to prove no easy task for the Corinthian. His captive in spring muslin has more than her rapturous good looks and bandboxes to aid her - she is ...
The murderer is also playing a game with Hercule Poirot, alerting him in advance to the locations of the murders. But each time Poirot arrives it is already too late. Intrigued by the psychopath’s mind and methodology Hercule Poirot...
The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been brought to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, on Rachel's cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and on Rachel herself.
The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world. Adam Price...
William Shakespeare
His Poetry and Plays!
After last year's 400 years celebration of the death of Shakespeare the world of Shakespeare recordings has continued to go the way of many other great audio productions. Audible/Amazon have, slowly, removed many of the greatest audio productions we at Brainfood Audiobooks have ever heard.
In recent years we have been asked many times, we can only apologize for our laggardly response. For all those who have asked about this we can only say - You are the reason for the current update on this subject and also the reason for the current 20% discount available on all of our Shakespeare stock. Thank you!
We have struggled with how to present our thoughts on the great performances we have to offer. Re-listening to most of the recordings we currently have in stock over the last few months we have distilled all these experiences in to one overpowering thought....
PASSION
Let's be clear, all of the performances you will find for sale on Brainfood Audiobooks will be competent. We have to say we have, over the years, consigned to the Charity Shop box all of the performances that appear to have been made with little passion to recommend them. What we have left is the greatest performances that have ever been made, and recorded/sold, of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare.
The muse of fire lives in these works and has inspired some of the greatest thespians ever to have walked the stage to perhaps their greatest heights.
The plays we have concentrated have been selected on the greatness of the performances.
From that point of view we will now begin with, without doubt the greatest performance of a Shakespeare play we have ever heard. To make this clear - this recording is played at least once a month for the last 20 years and continues to be eagerly anticipated!
Due to the nature of this play we can honestly say that Robert Stephen's performance as Richard Duke of Gloucester is the single best performance we have ever heard. We do stock several performances of Richard III, a much under-rated play by the cognoscenti, but they all fail, some more than others, to achieve Robert Stephen's heights. There is real magic in this work. The irony of the image used on the cover of this recording, being a outline drawing of Lawrence Olivier's iconic performance in this role, foreshadows the extraordinary quality of the this performance. When we include the brilliant work of Peggy Ashcroft, Ian Holm, Jeremy Brett and Cyril Cusak this work always finds itself in the Brainfood Audiobooks Stamp of Genius.
What We Have to Offer
Many hundreds of books have been written about Shakespeare so I will reflect, briefly, on only the 100 recordings we have to offer.
Non-Fiction on Audio CD
Shakespeare Non-Fiction
Almost all of the Non-Fiction recordings available have been published in the last 20 years and so are easily available on Audio CD.
Poetry on Cassette
Plays on Cassette
Poetry on Audio CD
Plays on Audio CD
Shakespeare Poetry and Plays
The same can not be said of the poetry and plays. Many of these recordings are over 50 years old and are found mainly on Cassette. So the first major decision required when looking at the works of the Bard is -
Is it worth digging out the cassette player?
The answer is an undoubted YES!
One of our core principles is to offer an opportunity to find old recordings of works, which in many cases never made it to CD. So the next question is -
Are the recordings of some of the best Actors and Actresses of the 50's, 60's and 70's still worth listening to?
If you haven't heard these recordings then you haven't heard the recordings that inspired the current crop of actors who perform these works.If you haven't heard these recordings then the beautiful tones and wonderful audio flexibility developed by these actors over many years of work in Rep, something that has all but died out in the last 20 years, still awaits you.
Whether you're looking to relive those treasured moments of your childhood or hoping to share some of your old favourites with your own little ones, there's no storybook world more pleasant than that of Beatrix Potter. Meet again the famous characters that children love and adore: Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, the Flopsy Bunnies, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Tom Kitten, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck and many more. This audiobook is perfect for half-term listening...
Here is Radio 4's Today presenter and national treasure John Humphrys' funny memoir of building his home in Greece with his son, Christopher. It was a moment of mad impulse when John Humphrys decided to buy a semi-derelict cottage and a building site on a plot of land overlooking the Aegean. A few minutes gazing out over the most glorious bay he had ever seen was all it took to persuade him. After all, his son Christopher was already raising his family there so he...
As a Live performance this pulls stories from several other titles byt the same author. Every book tells a story... And the 70 titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality that formed part of the original Penguin vision in 1935, and that continues to define our publishing today. Together, they tell one version of the unique story of Penguin. Gervase Phinn's fond memoirs of life as a school inspector have shown his homeland of Yorkshire..
The long awaited story of one of Britain’s greatest comic legends. Some people walk on stage and the audience warms to them. You can't explain it, and you shouldn't try. It's an arrogant assumption to say you 'decide' to become a comedian. The audience decides for you' Eric Sykes, December 2001 From his early days writing scripts for Bill Fraser and Frankie Howerd through decades of British radio and television comedy – Educating Archie, Sykes And A…, Curry and Chips,
"Winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other, for no one but Saunders could conceive it. February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation...
Praxis Duveen is a survivor. At five years old, in 1920s England, she is still innocent, the product of an unstable mother and a flighty father who abandoned Praxis and her half-crazy sister, Hypatia. As the decades fly by, Praxis experiences many incarnations, from prostitute to rape victim, wife to adulteress and eventually becomes the accidental leader of an international women's movement.Now, from her dingy basement apartment, where she's attempting to write a...
Vicky Rai, the son of a high-profile minister, has been shot dead by one of the guests at his own party. They are a glitzy bunch, but among them the police find six strange, displaced characters with a gun in their possession, each of them steaming with a secret motive. India's wiliest investigative journalist, Arun Advani, makes it his mission to nail the murderer. In doing so, the amazing, tender and touching lives of six eccentric characters unravel before our eyes.
The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action and suspense. Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast, waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy, lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced. The guns of Navarone, vigilant, savage and catastrophically accurate. Navarone itself, grim bastion of narrow straits manned by a mixed garrison of Germans and Italians, an apparently...
Nora Buchbinder—formerly rich and now broke—would be the last woman in Brooklyn to claim #MeToo, but when a work assignment reunites her with her childhood best friend, Beth, she finds herself in a hall of mirrors. Was their eighth grade teacher Beth's lover or her rapist? Where were the grown-ups? What should justice look like, after so much time has passed? And what can Nora do, now? Nora’s memories, and Beth’s, and those of their classmates, their former teacher,
Spiritual disciplines often seem remote from the realities of our daily lives. Yet there is a Mahayana Scripture which presents a model of enlightened practice in the midst of urban living, the Vimalakirti Sutra. This teaches a non-dualistic wisdom and reconciliation of dichotomies. It challenges ordinariness and reveals systematic and effective ways of tapping higher potentials while upholding one's usual responsibilities and enriching long-term relationships.