History - General

100 WATT BUT FLICKERING

by Brian Leslie Jones

read by John Hobday

running time 14hrs

When the author discovered that he knew very little about his grandparents he decided to write his memoirs, so that his granddaughters would be able to understand their Granddad a little better, and that they might learn from his mistakes. The book reflects his memories of Luton and other factors that impacted on his life, including his sight loss.

ABOUT TIME: A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN TWELVE CLOCKS

by David Rooney

read by David Rooney

running time 9hrs 58mins

From the city sundials of ancient Rome to the era of the smartwatch, clocks have been used throughout history to wield power, make money, govern citizens and keep control. Sometimes, also with clocks, we have fought back. About Time, time expert David Rooney tells the story of timekeeping, and how it continues to shape our modern world. In twelve chapters, demarcated like the hours of time, we meet the greatest inventions in horological history, from medieval water clocks to monumental sundials, and from coastal time signals to satellites in earth's orbit. We discover how clocks have helped us navigate the world, build empires and even taken us to the brink of destruction. Over the course of this global journey Rooney demonstrates how each of these clocks has shone a spotlight onto human civilisation, and shows us the very real effects clocks continue to have on everything from capitalism, to politics, to our very identity.

THE BABY LAUNDRY FOR UNMARRIED MOTHERS

by Angela Patrick

read by Christina Thornhill

running time 7hrs 25mins

London, 1963. Angela Patrick was 19 years old and pregnant. Her parents, strict Catholics, sent her to an imposing convent for unmarried mothers. At eight weeks, her son was taken away from her and put up for adoption. Thirty years later, he contacted her and a reunion was arranged.

CALL THE MIDWIFE

by Jennifer Worth

read by Annie Aldington

running time 12hrs

Jennifer Worth relates her experiences as a midwife in London’s East End during the 1950’s. She witnessed both brutality and tragedy but also met with kindness and understanding, all mixed with a good sprinkling of cockney humour.. The book succeeds in being both funny and very moving.

DAUGHTERS OF BRITANNIA

by Katie Hickman

read by Maureen Marshall

running time 14hrs 15mins

Whilst some wives of British diplomats were famous women, the vast majority were entirely unknown. This entertaining social history tells the story of diplomatic life over the centuries.

THE EARTH TRANSFORMED: AN UNTOLD HISTORY

by Peter Frankopan

read by Peter Frankopan

running time 29hrs 11mins

When we think about history, we rarely pay much attention to the most destructive floods, the worst winters, the most devastating droughts or the ways that ecosystems have changed over time. In The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan, one of the world's leading historians, shows that the natural environment is a crucial, if not the defining, factor in global history - and not just of humankind. Volcanic eruptions, solar activities, atmospheric, oceanic and other shifts, as well as anthropogenic behaviour, are fundamental parts of the past and the present. In this magnificent and groundbreaking book, we learn about the origins of our species: about the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; about how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; about how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; about how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long and deep history. All provide lessons of profound importance as we face a precarious future of rapid global warming. Taking us from the Big Bang to the present day and beyond, The Earth Transformed forces us to reckon with humankind's continuing efforts to make sense of the natural world.

FAITHFUL HANDMAID

by Hester Davenport

read by Nancy Gower

running time 10hrs 30mins

Fanny Burney was Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte. As such she was able to witness and record the dramas of the court, including the attempt on the King's life and his 'madness'. She also recorded her own life as she gained fame as a novelist.

GIRL IN A GREEN GOWN: THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF THE ARNOLFINI PORTRAIT

by Carola Hicks

read by Patricia Mumford

running time 9hrs

The Arnolfini portrait, painted by Jan van Eyck in 1434, is one of the world's most famous paintings. Scholars and the public alike have puzzled over the meaning of this haunting gem of medieval art. Using her acclaimed forensic skills as an art historian, Carola Hicks set out to decode the mystery, uncovering a few surprises along the way.

HEAVEN'S COMMAND

by Jan Morris

read by Roy McMillan

running time 20hrs 10mins

Jan Morris tells the epic story of the rise of the British Empire, from Queen Victoria's accession in 1837 to her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. She subtly traces the impact of empire on places as diverse as Sierra Leone and Fiji, Zululand and the Canadian prairies. Volume 1 of the 'Pax Brittanica' trilogy.

IF WALLS COULD TALK

by Lucy Worsley

read by Katherine Shaw

running time 11hrs

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions - and more - are answered in this truly intimate history of the home.

JAMBUSTERS

by Julie Summers

read by Jill Johnson

running time 10hrs 30mins

The Second World War was the WI's finest hour. With all the vigour, energy and enthusiasm at their disposal, a third of a million country women set out to make their lives and the lives of those around them more bearable in what they described as 'a period of insanity'.

KEEPING THE MUSIC ALIVE

by Colin Burbidge (editor)

read by Miscellaneous

running time 1hr

Wartime adventures of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Originally compiled and produced as a radio broadcast by Colin Burbidge.

LADY ALMINA AND THE REAL DOWNTON ABBEY

by Lady Fiona Carnarvon

read by Grace Dives

running time 11hrs

Lady Fiona Carnarvon, chatelaine of Highclere Castle - the setting for the hit TV show 'Downton Abbey' - discovers a fascinating history of the place and the extraordinary people who lived there over the centuries.

MADHOUSE AT THE END OF THE EARTH: THE BELGICA'S JOURNEY INTO THE DARK ANTARCTIC NIGHT

by Julian Sancton

read by Vikas Adam

running time 13hrs 28mins

August 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship's crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness. In this epic tale, Julian Sancton unfolds a story of adventure gone horribly awry. As the crew teetered on the brink, the Captain increasingly relied on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity - Dr. Frederick Cook, the wild American whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica; and the ship's first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, who later raced Captain Scott to the South Pole. Together, Cook and Amundsen would plan a last-ditch, desperate escape from the ice-one that would either etch their names into history or doom them to a terrible fate in the frozen ocean. Drawing on first-hand crew diaries and journals, and exclusive access to the ship's logbook, the result is equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror. This is an unforgettable journey into the deep.

THE NAKED NEANDERTHAL

by Ludovic Slimak

read by John Sackville

running time 6hrs 14mins

What do we really know about our cousins, the Neanderthals? For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. After new discoveries, the pendulum swung the other way and they are generally seen as our relatives: not quite human, but similar enough, and still not equal. Now, thanks to an ongoing revolution in palaeoanthropology in which he has played a key part, Ludovic Slimak shows us that they are something altogether different - and they should be understood on their own terms rather than by comparing them to ourselves. As he reveals in this stunning book, the Neanderthals had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence, very different from ours. Ludovic Slimak has travelled around the world for the past thirty years to uncover who the Neanderthals really were. A modern-day Indiana Jones, he takes us on a fascinating archaeological investigation: from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces the steps of these enigmatic creatures, working to decipher their real stories through every single detail they left behind. A thought-provoking adventure story, written with wit and verve, The Naked Neanderthal shifts our understanding of deep history -- and in the process reveals just how much we have yet to learn.

OBERAMMERGAU

by James Shapiro

read by John Hunter

running time 9hrs

A fascinating portrait of a German village and its controversial Passion Play, which has been held every ten years since the seventeenth century.

PALACES OF PLEASURE

by Lee Jackson

read by Grace Dives

running time 14hrs

In this engaging account of Victorian mass entertainment, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well-known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar attractions of the pleasure garden and human zoos, to theme park thrill rides. The Victorians' unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the modern entertainment industry.

QUEST FOR ADVENTURE

by Chris Bonington

read by Nigel Bonynge

running time 17hrs

A collection of stories written by Sir Chris Bonington looking at the adventurous impulse which has driven men and women to achieve the impossible in the face of Earth’s elements: crossing its oceans, deserts and poles; canoeing its rivers; climbing its mountains and descending into its caves.

RABBIT-PROOF FENCE

by Doris Pilkington

read by Rebekah Germain

running time 4hrs 20mins

The captivating true story of the author's mother, Molly, one of three young sisters uprooted from their community in South-western Australia and taken to a native settlement, where they were taught to be culturally white. The girls escaped and followed a 1,000 mile long rabbit-proof fence back to their home.

SAFE PASSAGE

by Ida Cook

read by Grace Dives

running time 9hrs

No one would have predicted such glamorous and daring lives for Ida and Louise Cook, two decidedly ordinary women who lived quiet lives in the London suburbs. But throughout the 1930s, the remarkable sisters rescued dozens of Jews facing persecution and death by posing as eccentric opera fans.

TALES FROM THE STAVE

by Hill. Clemency Burton & Frances Fyfield

read by Clemency Burton Hill

running time 27hrs 40mins

Crime writer Frances Fyfield and classical music broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill pore over the hand-written scores of great composers to decipher the hidden tales of creativity locked within. Behind the hieroglyphics, scribbles and corrections on these priceless pages are clues that, when forensically examined by an expert eye, reveal the extraordinary craft, skill and inventiveness of geniuses such as Beethoven, Handel, Elgar, Stravinsky, Schubert, Puccini, Rachmaninov and Chopin. Accompanied by a team of musical sleuths, including world-leading performers, conductors, writers and graphologists, Frances and Clemency travel the UK, Europe and America to track down these rare and treasured documents. Among their discoveries are the manuscripts for famous songs like 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring', and some of the best-loved operas, operettas and musicals of all time including Madame Butterfly, Porgy and Bess, and The Pirates of Penzance. They scour the fragile pages of Bach's B-Minor Mass, so thick with music that the ink has burned through the paper; the ballet score for Aaron Copland's 'Appalachian Spring', revealing the changes made to please guest dancer Rudolf Nureyev; and a long-lost flute concerto by Vivaldi, rediscovered after being buried in an Edinburgh archive for 250 years. Through detailed study of these, and many other, manuscripts, they reveal the answers to questions such as, how did Debussy attempt to capture the sea? What famous lines were adapted for their first singers? Why was one of Mozart's boldest lines crossed out? And did the shooting of a German diplomat inspire Tippett's A Child of Our Time? Inspired, insightful and often surprising, this is an unparalleled look at the astonishing secret history of musical invention - ink blots, doodles, coffee stains and all.

THE UNRELIABLE LIFE OF HARRY THE VALET: THE GREAT VICTORIAN JEWEL THIEF

by Duncan Hamilton

read by Bob Rollett

running time 10hrs 20mins

The true story of the most notorious Victorian jewel thief, who eluded London’s top detectives for five years but who was brought down by his love for the woman he would steal and lie for.

THE VANISHED LANDSCAPE

by Paul Johnson

read by Jim Swingler

running time 8hrs

Historian Paul Johnson grew up in the Potteries in the 1930s. Here he describes his free and un-supervised childhood, and the strange beauty of the industrial landscape around Stoke-on-Trent.

WALKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK: A DISTRICT NURSE'S LIFE JOURNEY

by Dinah Latham

read by Grace Dives

running time 6hrs

Retired district nurse and midwife, Dinah, reflects on her life whilst walking with her close companion Harriet the dog, through the changing seasons of the Chiltern countryside. The reader will both laugh and cry as the author recounts many moving stories of patients cared for in 1960s London.