Showing results by narrator "Simon Alison" in All Categories

After an anonymous encounter at a Hertfordshire assembly, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet conduct a secret courtship without knowing each other's identities—unaware that she is the paid companion to the cousin he jilted and that their families' intertwined fates will force them to choose between love and duty.

Perhaps this concealment, this disguise, was beneath me… It is done, however, and it was done for the best. Elizabeth Bennet, walking in Kent the day after Mr Darcy’s proposal meets with an unfortunate mishap. A meeting with an adder has disastrous consequences for her and when she wakes from a period of unconsciousness, she has no memory at all of the last ten months of her life. To her complete shock she learns that she is engaged to a man called Darcy, a man she has no recollection of meeting before.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, Hero is a duology comprised of two previously published novella length variations of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

All of his efforts to forget her had failed, and he had accepted that some part of her would always be with him. In the winter of 1812, a fatal accident on a stormy night plunges the Bennet family into mourning and scandal. Shunned and isolated from nearly everyone they have ever known and loved each of the Bennet sisters hurries to marry, to provide themselves the respectability of married women. Miss Elizabeth Bennet settles into marriage of prudence with a man she respects but could never completely love.

I signed my maiden name first before memorializing my new name. Elizabeth Madeline Darcy. Elizabeth Bennet lay dead on the altar of matrimony. HAVING SIGNED THE REGISTER as Elizabeth Darcy, the former Miss Elizabeth Bennet must somehow survive a crushing scandal as a stranger to herself. Her unwilling husband is so outraged to find himself tied to a person he thinks no better than a fortune hunter that she is forbidden to speak of the circumstances behind their union. Indeed, Mr. Darcy seems to loathe even the sound of her voice, and often Elizabeth's only recourse is to be silent.

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.

One of Russia's most iconic poets, Alexander Pushkin is often described as the 'father of Russian literature'. A gambler, playboy and social reformer, he was exiled by the Tsar for his controversial poetry and died aged 37 in a duel defending his wife's honour. This BBC Radio anthology includes dramatisations and readings of Pushkin's most famous works - plus biographical programmes and an original play based on his life.

Barney Snapp looks ordinary. But behind his smile lies something broken. Home-schooled and raised in isolation, Barney grew up role-playing with china dolls while other children played in the real world. Now an adult, he still struggles to understand human emotions, or to control his own. When...

When Pope John XXIV is found dead in his bed just two years after his election, the world braces for a new conclave. But as the cardinal electors are sealed inside the Sistine Chapel, something unthinkable happens. Hours pass. No smoke rises. No vote is announced. And when Vatican Secretary of State Elisabetta Celestino breaks protocol to open the doors—she finds the chapel empty. The cardinals have vanished without a trace.

David Edgar is among the UK’s leading contemporary dramatists, well known for his powerful plays chronicling Britain's changing political landscape over the past 50 years. More than 60 of his original plays, adaptations and translations have been performed around the world, and in 2023 he was honoured with a Writers’ Guild Outstanding Contribution award for his service to British playwriting. This radio anthology contains some of his most notable work.

Notorious jewel thief Jimmy Valentine (Hadley Fraser: “Phantom of the Opera”, “City of Angels”) swears he's going straight this time. But Jimmy has baggage that won't fit in his suitcase of burglar's tools. Soon after his release from prison, he's back to his old habits. Disillusioned New Orleans detective Jen Price (Kerry Ellis: “Wicked”) wants to catch Jimmy Valentine—and feel like a hero again. But Jimmy isn't the villain she'd hoped he'd be. While hiding in a small town, Jimmy falls in love with Annabel Adams (Celinde Schoenmaker: “Guys and Dolls”).

A riveting slow burn debut romantasy about morally grey, grief-fuelled, self-destructive, sarcastic young woman who enters deadly trials in the hopes of bringing her boyfriend back from the land of the deal, only to find herself torn between her true love and the King of the Fallen, perfect for...

Thomas More is an enduringly fascinating and profoundly controversial figure. A brilliant scholar, his Utopia of 1516 dared to imagine how society might be completely reordered. At the same time, his hatred of the Reformation caused him to advocate, and seek to implement, the death penalty for...

A dark secret hangs over the Caribbean. Britain is at war with Napoleon, amid this chaos, a shadowy network acts against the common good. Lives hang in the balance while a young and ambitious lieutenant takes his new assignment aboard the H.M.S Valor. Circumstances soon lead him down a path, where he must weigh traditional judgement carefully. With sword and pistol in hand, he will confront his fate, where things are not as simple as they first appear, and the path of honor looks an awful lot like treason.

London, 1789. After a fire consumes the Theatre Royal, master showman Joseph Eliot is desperate to rebuild. His answer comes in the form of a strange, silent boy—his skin marked with tiger–like stripes—and a plan to turn curiosity into spectacle.

Lin has dedicated his life to the faction’s cause—loyal, unwavering, and bound by honor. He followed orders. Protected the innocent. But when a companion he swore to protect is found slain under his watch, duty turns to disaster. Ambushed by monstrous abominations, Lin is left broken, bleeding, and betrayed by the sole comrade who remained. Left for dead, Lin wakes to find the wound that should have killed him stitched shut by outlawed sorcery. He should be grateful. Instead, he’s hunted. Marked. A traitor and monster in the eyes of the regime he once bled for.

When duty collides with desire, can love rewrite their fate?  Mr. Evander Addington had his life carefully mapped out—a quiet, predictable future as a Fellow at Oxford. But everything changed when his older brother unexpectedly passed away, making Evander the reluctant heir to an earldom...

1899, London. The past, present, and future of all life is controlled by an ancient device, hidden for centuries. Supernatural forces are unrelenting in their search for it. When homeless 12-year-old Jack Picklewick unwittingly comes into possession of it, he finds himself thrust into the heart of a prophecy that was foretold at the dawn of time. With the guidance of forgetful horologist Mr. Moretimer, who claims to be Father Time, a daunting task lies ahead—prevent the device from falling into the hands of raging Mother Nature.

Edited by the award-winning author, Niamh McAnally, Stories of Place will take you on a whirlwind journey across the globe courtesy of nine international writers whose tales span the genres of thriller, adventure, mystery, coming-of-age, LGBTQ+, young adult, and literary fiction, as well as the vast spectrum of the human experience. Each story is titled using the innovative geocode system What3Words, which uses three words to identify a precise location on Earth.

Capitalism needs to transform, as its engine's real purpose - business - to solve society's problems and not profit from causing problems to the community. Everyone needs to feel a sense of justified belief in the capitalist system that offers an equitable share in the benefits. We need to move away from the new rentier capitalism into which we are gradually drifting into.