Showing results by narrator "Christian Rodska" in All Categories

Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? Every year, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien would write to Father Christmas, and the letters they received told wonderful stories of his adventures at the North Pole. These humorous tales are brought to life by Derek Jacobi as Father Christmas, John Moffatt as Polar Bear, and Christian Rodska as Ilbereth the Elf, complete with specially composed music.

On the day of his marriage to Maria, Hornblower is ordered to take the Hotspur and head for Brest – war is coming and Napoleon will not catch His Majesty’s navy with its britches round its ankles. With thoughts of his new life as a husband intruding on his duties, Hornblower must prove himself to be not only the most capable commander in the fleet, but also its most daring if he is to stop the French gaining the upper hand. This is the third of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester’s inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

In this new adventure, Hornblower is overjoyed to discover his next task is to serve aboard the mighty HMS Renown. After witnessing some unsettling scenes however, he soon finds himself struggling to serve under the captain, James Sawyer, whose unsound mind leads him to treat his crew with extreme suspicion and contempt.

In Roman times, the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World held a deep fascination. Two of them were in Egypt: the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Lighthouse at Alexandria. Marcus Didius Falco's wife Helena Justina is determined to see them before her next confinement. Conveniently, he has an uncle with a house in Alexandria. For this innocent reason (he says) they sail to Egypt. As soon as they arrive in Alexandria, a suspicious death occurs at the famous Great Library.

The soul of Uther Pendragon is chained in hell. The sword of power is lost in swirling chaos. The realm is under threat from barbarian hordes - led by an undead god from the vaults of prehistory. And a new Dark Age is dawning over Roman Britain. Then comes a man called Revelation, seeking a child born of a demon.... Seeking the legendary Lord of the Lance.... Seeking the sword to save the realm.

In the year 1805, the young and enthusiastic Horatio Hornblower is given his first command as Captain of HMS Atropos. A 22-gun sloop, it is hardly the biggest ship in the navy, but undeterred, Hornblower boards the Atropos in eager anticipation of the voyages to come. Acting as flagship during the funeral procession for Lord Nelson, Horatio's first endeavour is to pay tribute to the country's fallen hero.

This volume of Churchill's history of World Ward 2 recounts the dramatic months as the war drew to a close - the normandy landings, the liberation of western Europe, the bombing of hiroshima and Nagaski, and the surrender of Germany and Japan.

Churchill's history of the Second World War is, and will remain, the definitive work. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction.

One of the best selling History titles of 2009. Examining the Second World War on every front, Andrew Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-making process and a different strategy, Hitler’s Axis might even have won. Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler after the war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their former Führer once he was safely beyond defending himself?

1793 and Europe is ablaze with war. Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized by the press gang to be a part of the crew of the 98-gun line-of-battle ship Duke William. The ship sails immediately and Kydd has to learn the harsh realities of shipboard life fast. Despite all that he goes through in danger of tempest and battle he comes to admire the skills and courage of the seamen - taking up the challenge himself to become a true sailor.

Sam McCready is The Deceiver, one of the Secret Intelligence Service's most unorthodox and most valued operatives, a legend in his own time. The end of the cold war has, however, strengthened the hand of the Whitehall mandarins, to whom he seems about as controllable as Genghis Khan, so Sam is to have his fate decided at a special hearing.

Marcus Didius Falco discovers that rank brings problems, the most gruesome of which is a corpse buried under the tiles of his new bath house. The contractors have fled to Britain where, as the Fates have it, Falco is ordered. A local chief and ally of the Romans is having a Palace built by the Emperor Vespasian. However, the project is running late, and fatal accidents keep happening. Falco, troubleshooting for the Emperor, is without an ally and now next on the list for assassination.

The English-speaking peoples comprise perhaps the greatest number of human beings sharing a common language in the world today. These people also share a common heritage. For his four-volume work, Sir Winston Churchill took as his subject these great elements in world history. Volume 1 commences in 55BC, when Julius Caesar famously "turned his gaze upon Britain" and concludes with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

After the short reign and mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, the election of a new Pope takes place in an atmosphere of high tension between opposing factions within the Vatican, including those who want to elect the first non-Italian Pope for over four hundred years. Starring David Calder, Alison Reid, Nicholas Le Prevost, Andrew Hilton, Nigel Anthony, Paul Humpoletz, Paul Nicholson, Christian Rodska, Jonathan Nibbs, Bill Wallis, David Collins, and Paul Dodgson. With John Sandeman and Kristian Phillips.

Marcus Didius Falco and his friend Petronius find their local fountain has been blocked - by a severed human hand. Soon other body parts are being found in the aqueducts & sewers.

Dealing with war on a giant scale, The Grand Alliance focuses on events as Britain, after fighting a desperate battle alone, was joined in the struggle against the enemy by Soviet Russia and the United Sates. Hitler's invasion of Russia brought to an end a period of almost exactly a year during which Britain and her Empire had stood alone. Six months later, the United States, attacked by Japan, joined the war and the Grand Alliance was born.

Her Majesty's ship Sutherland is a humdrum ship of the line. But in command is none other than the heroic Captain Hornblower and, with his crew from the Lydia, he looks set to take on commando raids, hurricanes at sea, and Napoleons's gun batteries.

This second naval adventure follows the life of Thomas Paine Kydd who sails into Portsmouth a hero after a ferocious battle against the French. Soon the sea beckons and Kydd sets off aboard his beloved Artemis for another adventure.

Described by Len Deighton as ‘a classic writer of espionage fiction’, Ted Allbeury based his many acclaimed spy novels on his own real-life experiences. In World War II, he served as an intelligence officer with Special Operations Executive, and subsequently ran agents across the border between East and West Germany during the Cold War. He began writing in his fifties, and went on to pen over 40 bestselling books, five of which are dramatised here alongside three plays specially written for BBC Radio and two bonus documentaries.

It is two years since Thomas Paine Kydd was spirited away in the night to serve his country aboard the 'Duke William'. Now, with his friend Nicholas Renzi and crew members from the 'Artemis', Tom is a shipwrecked sailor back in the land of his birth.