Here are more than sixty eyewitness accounts from history. Many are notable events: the Battle of Thermopylae, the Black Death in 1341, the Great Fire of London, the execution of Louis XVI, the Death of Nelson and the American Civil War and the bombing of Hiroshima. But there are also snapshots of more ordinary life no less memorable for that including working conditions during the Industrial Revolution, views of slave owners and slaves, Paul Gaugin choosing a bride on Tahiti and the arres...

Tim Pigott-Smith discusses playing Leontes, in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Thirteen Leading Actors in Thirteen Key Roles.In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes, recreating in detail a memorable performance in one of Shakespeare's major roles. They discuss their character, working through the play scene by scene, with refreshing candour and in forensic detail. The result is a masterclass on play...

A memoir of theatrical life and much more by Tim Pigott-Smith, one of the best known and most prodigiously talented actors of his generation.From his appearance as Ronald Merrick in the television adaptation of The Jewel in the Crown to his recent role in the hit play King Charles III, Tim Pigott-Smith has been recognised as one of Britain's most loved contemporary actors. On stage his work encompassed the Bristol Old Vic, Royal Shakespeare Compan...

Dostoyevsky’s famous and well-regarded 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov is a tale of bitter family rivalries. Three brothers live in a small, typical Russian town. Their father, a selfish, cunning, lascivious figure with little love for them, tries to maintain his control over them and anyone who comes within his orbit. The roots of dissent, unhappiness, hope, ambition and desire run deep in this community as everywhere, and Dostoyevsky brings them to the fore with an unexpected death. Th...

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of thirty people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, (1935)). This is an ideal way to appreciate...

Brought to you by Penguin.In a small continental country civil war is raging. Once a lecturer in medieval French, now a government agent, D is a scarred stranger in England, sent on a mission to buy coal at any price. Initially, this seems to be a matter of straightforward negotiation, but soon, implicated in murder, accused of possessing false documents and theft, held responsible for the death of a young woman, D becomes a hunted man, tormented by allegiances, do...

In August 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew set sail from England for Antarctica, where Shackleton hoped to be the first man to cross the uncharted continent on foot. Five months later, the Endurance—just a day's sail short of its destination—became locked in an island of ice, and its destiny and men became locked in history. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted until it was finally crushed, and Shackleton and his men drifting on ice packs, were cas...

**Brought to you by Penguin.A gripping tragicomedy of a bungled kidnapping in a provincial Argentinean town, considered to be one of Greene's finest novels.**In a provincial Argentinian community, Charley Fortnum - a British consul with dubious authority and a notorious fondness for drink - is kidnapped by rebels in a case of mistaken identity. The young but world-weary Doctor Eduardo Plarr, is left to pick up the pieces and secure Fortnum's release, wading through a sea of...

Brought to you by Penguin.A leak is traced to a small sub-section of the secret service, sparking off the inevitable security checks, tensions and suspicions. The sort of atmosphere, perhaps, where mistakes could be made? For Maurice Castle, it is the end of the line anyway, and time for him to retire to live peacefully with his wife and child. But no-one escapes so easily from the lonely, isolated, neurotic world of the SIS.‘Graham Greene's beautif...

An exploration of the British monarchy from the retreat of the Romans up until the modern day.The monarchy is one of Britain’s longest surviving institutions – as well as one of its most tumultuous and revered. In this masterful book, David Starkey looks at the monarchy as a whole, charting its history from Roman times, to the Wars of the Roses, the chaos of the Civil War, the fall of Charles I and Cromwell's emergence as Lord Protector – all the way up until the Victorian era when...

George Mallory's collected writings on his mountaineering - and his motivations. Famously impelled to climb Mount Everest simply because it was there, Mallory made three attempts to be the first to reach its summit, and perished on the third. His writing reveals the emotional life of the mountaineer. With eloquence, Mallory captures the struggles and the rewards involved, the climber's sense of triumph, and experiences of staggering beauty.The reader is Tim Pigott Smith.

Selected Dramatisations and readings of the genre-spanning work of HE Bates'A great treasure trove to dive into' Entertainment FocusHE Bates is probably best known for his comic novel The Darling Buds of May, which introduced the lovable Larkins to the world and sparked three hugely popular TV adaptations. In his 68 years, Bates wrote over 20 further novels, more than 300 short stories, children’s books, poems, plays and n...