Showing results by narrator "Simon Callow" in All Categories

Here is the beguiling and charming memoir of Toby, an exceptionally gifted pig. After escaping the butcher's knife with the help of his steadfast companion, Sam, Toby soon finds himself under the order of the volatile impresario Silas Bisset and his travelling menagerie of performing monkeys, horses, turkeys, and canaries. Before too long, he is packing out theatres and concert halls. But celebrity comes at a cost, as Toby soon finds out.

Claude discovers a film set on the other side of the fence! When the two lead actors are injured, Claude and Sir Bobblysock are asked to take their places. Can they become movie stars with just the simple addition of a wig? Of course they can!

A walk in the park leads to a walk on a tightrope when Claude joins a circus, throws custard pies and becomes the star of the show!

Condemned as immoral when it was first published in 1890, Oscar Wilde's tale of the beautiful young man who "sold himself to the devil for a pretty face" follows the fortunes of Dorian Gray when his prayer for eternal youth as he contemplates his newly finished portrait is answered.

Shaun Usher brings together fascinating correspondence about the universe beyond our planet, containing hopeful thoughts about the future of space travel, awestruck messages penned about the worlds beyond our own and celebrations of the human ingenuity that has facilitated our understanding of the cosmos.

Comedian and broadcaster Arthur Smith plays tour guide to fifteen well-known personalities, as they visit places that are meaningful to them and remember pivotal moments in their lives. Through genial chat, humorous banter and gentle probing, he discovers just what made these locations so special and significant—and opens the floodgates to some amazing personal stories.

In this latest adventure, on a winter's day, Claude goes from throwing snowballs and making snowmen to causing an all-out avalanche!

A quiet walk in the country turns into a busy day on the farm when Claude ends up mucking out the pigs, feeding the chickens and lassoing a fearsome bull!

Claude in the Spotlight is the fifth title in this adorable new young fiction series from the talented Alex T. Smith. Claude was selected for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2012 and the Richard and Judy Book Club 2011. A gentle stroll through town leads to leg kicking and bottom shaking as Claude dances his way into the theatre and straight into the spotlight!

Meet Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective who can read a newspaper headline with the touch of his fingers and shoot a villain by aiming at the sound of his beating heart. In The Eyes of Max Carrados, our hero discovers a story of murder, suicide and a desperate daughter’s quest to clear her father’s name.

Victory was the last of Conrad's novels to be set in the Malay Archipelago. It tells the story of Axel Heyst, who has retreated from the world of commerce to live alone on the island of Samburan. But his solitary existence ends when he rescues an English girl and brings her back to the island. She recalls him to love and to life, until the world breaks in on them once more with tragic consequences.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, a select group of his family and most ardent admirers from the worlds of literature and entertainment, including Joanna Lumley and Simon Callow, gathered in Highgate Cemetery, burial place of many of the Dickens family, to hear readings from his work introduced by his great-great-grandson Mark Dickens and to discuss his life.

Jacques and His Master is a deliciously witty and entertaining 'variation' on Diderot's novel Jacques le Fataliste, written for Milan Kundera's 'private pleasure' in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. When the 'heavy Russian irrationality' fell on Czechoslovakia he felt drawn to the spirit of the eighteenth century - 'and it seemed to me that nowhere was it to be found more densely concentrated than in that banquet of intelligence, humour and fantasy, Jacques le Fataliste'.

Thin, Brittle, Mile is the story of brothers Luke and Tyler Dearlove who travel to the remote, sparsely populated Skidaway Island searching for their third missing sibling. The brothers soon garner the sense that something is terribly wrong on the island, and their inquiries, which stir up the most insidious of hornets nests, are greeted at first with shrouded suspicion, then with open hostility, followed by blunt threats, harassment, and escalating violence.

As the First world War rapidly approaches, we arrive in a sleepy south coast town where Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective, is soon investigating the sudden death of the local museum curator. All is not as it seems, as our blind hero finds himself on the cliff top in a duel to the death with the ruthless German spymaster who is the one who knows The Secret of Headlam Height.

Max Carrados, the celebrated blind detective is lured to Stratford-upon-Avon following an explosion by a band of determined suffragettes. Faced with the ingenious mind of Mr Rigby Lacksome, Max and his trusty servant Parkinson must solve the riddle of the missing body of William Shakespeare.