Showing results by narrator "Steve Hodson" in All Categories

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the most astonishing child prodigy in the history of music, is felt by many people to be the greatest composer who ever lived. Dominated and shaped by a highly intelligent but frustrated and ambitious father, his story sees the development of a unique genius, from precocious and often endearing childhood to liberated fulfillment, unexpected poverty, and a tragically early death. Generously illustrated by Mozart’s music, from his fifth to his final year, this portrait-in-sound reveals a fascinating yet elusive character, drawing richly on the words of the composer himself and those who knew him.

Hague shows how Wilberforce, after his agonising conversion to evangelical Christianity, was able to lead a powerful tide of opinion, as MP for Hull, against the slave trade, a process which was to take up to half a century to be fully realised. Indeed, he succeeded in rallying to his cause the support in the Commons Debates of some the finest orators in Parliament, having become one of the most respected speakers of those times.

Tom Ward is now spook of the county, and with his apprentice, Jenny, he continues the fight against boggarts, witches, and terrifying new creatures of the dark. Together with the witch assassin Grimalkin, Tom and Jenny lead an army into battle against a dangerous enemy - but it all goes catastrophically wrong. The situation seems hopeless until Alice - Tom's lost love and a powerful witch - appears. But Alice had turned to the dark: Can Tom trust her now?

Detective Inspector Peter Diamond is keen to get his teeth into a new case. So, when a call comes in that a woman's body has been found in one of Bath's parks, he arrives quickly at the scene - only to discover that the victim is his wife.

Tales of adventures on the high seas captivate both sailors and those who stand on the shore and gaze out across the oceans. In this original collection of sea stories, edited by veteran writer Dick Durham, the gamut of human experience is mirrored in a world of tragic shipwrecks and sea monsters, epic races and brave rescues, tall ships and tiny dinghies.

No great composer’s story is more predominantly happy than Haydn’s, though even his has its share of clouds. A classic rags-to-riches tale, it sees him move from humble beginnings through decades as a liveried servant to his emergence as the most popular and successful composer of his time. One of the healthiest and least neurotic artists in musical history, he did more than any other single figure to pioneer the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet - and he was the first truly great practitioner of each.

It's summer in Cambridge, and the half-consumed body of a young man sticks out grotesquely from the mouth of a shredding machine! Does this death mark the beginning of an unprecedented crime wave in this well-heeled community...or something else?

George Worth is a grumpy lifestyle columnist. He hates fashion, mobile phones, computers and Young People. At night he goes home to a borrowed Labrador and feelings of guilt about his dead wife. Justin Smith is a Young Person. A bright newcomer, he’s always on his mobile to his girlfriend, surfing the Net and keeping abreast of the latest trends. Then comes the day when Justin’s girlfriend throws him out and he finds himself having to share a flat with George. As the women around them watch and wonder, both men start to work out what really matters among the distractions of modern life.

With the possible exception of Mozart, Verdi is the most popular opera composer who ever lived. Quite early in his career his tunes were being cranked out by barrel organs throughout Europe and were well known to many who may never even have heard his name. But the complex man behind them remains elusive and puzzling. In this portrait-in-sound, Jeremy Siepmann and a group of distinguished actors take an in-depth look behind the popular image of a man who was, and perhaps remains, the most enduring national hero in Italian history and a colossus in the history of music itself.

"An artist should not be troubled by the indifference of his contemporaries. He should go on working and say all that he is predestined to say. He should know that posterity alone can deliver a true and just verdict." So said Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and posterity has delivered its verdict. His music is glorious, uplifting, soulful, humourous and wonderfully melodic. Thchaikovsky regarded music as something to be savoured and shared, and he worked hard and long to that end.

Years after Alice Draper's death her murderer remains unpunished, and six of her lovers still have their lives blighted by suspicion. Exiled to the seaside town of Eddathorpe, DI Robert Graham expects to have lots of time to brood about his failed marriage and his formerly promising career. Instead, he finds himself drawn into the Draper case, and unwittingly takes the lid off of a surprising variety of scandals, some of which involve senior policemen.

Lifelong fisherman Paul Knight knows the thrill of the chase, the one–on–one battle of endurance between man and beast that is sport fishing. Like Hemingway, and legions of others who've tested themselves against nature, author Paul Knight has traveled to remote parts of the globe to reel in stories of epic adventures with rod and line.

In the polluted and poverty-ridden Coketown, Louisa and Tom Gradgrind endure a cold and loveless childhood at the hands of their self-satisfied and unimaginative father, Thomas. Starved of affection, Louisa is forced into a miserable marriage with the self-made industrialist Josiah Bounderby, 30 years her senior, whilst Tom descends into a secret life of theft. Into such squalor and misery comes generous and spirited Sissy Jupe, a child of the circus whose ailing father, Sleary, has deserted her.

In this fine work of full-length fiction by award-winning author Ian R. MacLeod, a chilling alternate history unfolds.... An elderly English historian, swept along with the rest of his country by the march of history, sways between reminiscences of his life's true love and his efforts - in his own fumbling way - to change his nation's course. In this tale, Britain has lost the First World War and turned to fascism.