Showing results by narrator "Robert Whitfield" in All Categories

For nearly 90 years, Lord Charnwood’s Abraham Lincoln has been the standard life history of the Great Emancipator. It has become one of the great classics of modern biography and has been read by millions. Charnwood describes the frontier life and continual self-education that developed Lincoln’s rare character and helped him to adapt to great events and demands such as few other men have experienced. Lincoln’s administrative genius, his war strategy, and his neglect of the lesser for the greater are all treated in this masterly portrait.

Caught in the middle of the American Revolution against the English Crown, two families are divided by their loyalties. Dake Bradford, a blazing American patriot under the command of George Washington, has taken a stand against the British. Clive Gordon, a young physician and Dake's first cousin, is the son of an English colonel who has sworn to put down the rebellion. Fanned by fires of patriotism, sides have been drawn, and there can be no turning back.

As General George Washington makes a desperate attempt to forge an army that can stop the British from taking New York and defeating the Continental Army, the Bradford family is learning that serving God and serving one's country often calls for great sacrifice. Meanwhile, Clive Gordon, son of Colonel Leslie Gordon of the British army, falls in love with Katherine Yancy, a daring young woman whose father and uncle are patriot prisoners. When Clive crosses enemy lines to attempt their rescue, will he be shot as a spy?

Frank Harris, a journalist and editor, delighted in Oscar Wilde's genial wit and self-assurance. Wilde's verbal charms evoked Harris' financial and emotional support when Victorian England disdained the playwright for his paganism and imprisoned him for "homosexual offenses". Harris relates the proceedings of Wilde's trial and the malice that sent him to France after release from prison.

Giacomo Casanova's reputation rests largely on his obsession with women, but he was much more than the great 18th-century lover. Lawyer, mathematician, poet, translator, and librarian who was fluent in several languages, he was described by one contemporary as "the most civilized man in Europe." That he was also a con man, cabalist, spy, revenge-taker, and experienced prisoner only enhances his appeal as one who personified the extreme social and moral contradictions of the time.

Charles Ashworth, the bishop of Starbridge, is a man of great accomplishment, confidence, and conviction, with a reputation as a no-nonsense bishop - until his beloved wife dies. Bereavement overwhelming his spiritual equilibrium, his strict morality is quickly revealed to him to be nothing more than a facade. Spiralling downwards, Ashworth knows he must find his way out of the maze of his own psyche. In doing so, he must face the absolute truths - both good and bad - of his past that may be the only keys to his future.

Civilization may face no greater enemy than Saddam Hussein, and yet, as Richard Butler makes clear in his gripping and terrifying The Greatest Threat, the major powers allowed Saddam to face them down.

A compendium of radio sitcoms and retrospectives celebrating the legendary duo: Ray Galton and Alan Simpson were Britain's best-loved and most successful comedy writing partners. Together, they created two of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. This compilation brings together some of the finest programmes from their 60-year career, as well as interviews with them both.