An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

"This is a book for fans of New Orleans, of the universal ball game, of ex-pats and of pubs. Score 10-nil for Rea and the McCools."--The Irish American Post"Rea's book brings one of the biggest stories of the century down to a touching, emotional, personal level in a solid debut effort."--Phil Schoen, GolTV commentatorAfter jetting around the world, Stephen Rea left Belfast to settle in New Orleans in 2004. Life in the Deep South proved to be startlingly different from that...

For the Summer 2018 World Cup, the ultimate book for soccer fans around the globe!The world will be riveted by the globe’s greatest sporting event in summer of 2018 (more than 27 million Americans watched the final game of the last tournament in Brazil). The 2018 edition will bring the sports’s greatest stars together, but who will take home the trophy?favorites Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina? Or a surprise?Belgium, Mexico, Portugal, or Colombia? And why is the...

In 2004, Belfast-born Stephen Rea moved to New Orleans, a city where "football" means something entirely different than what it does back home. After struggling to find a place to watch European soccer games, Rea discovered Finn McCool's pub and its mixed clientele of good-humored European ex-pats, charismatic New Orleanians, and assorted matchless personalities. Before long he was playing on the pub's motley over-thirty-five fledgling soccer team. Gathered at the bar on August 27, 2005, m...

Three BBC radio productions of major works by James Joyce – plus Gordon Bowker’s fascinating biographical account of his lifeUlyssesIn this full-cast dramatisation of Joyce’s epic modernist novel, the stories of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom combine as they meander through Dublin in the course of one day, 16 June 1904. Andrew Scott stars as Stephen, with Henry Goodman as Bloom, Niamh Cusack

An entertaining, heartwarming memoir detailing the adventures and valuable life lessons learned from the author’s four decades of friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and the Osbourne family.Stephen Rea was born in Northern Ireland in 1969, the same year “The Troubles” began. Violence was everywhere. His grandmother was nearly killed when gunmen opened fire on the wrong house, leaving young Stephen to pick at the bullet holes in the walls. He found refuge from this turmoi...

William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform.Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month's rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her eye: 'WANTED. HOUSEKEEPER.'She begins to work in William's house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times befo...

Four modern masterpieces that dared to push boundaries and disrupt the status quoDeviant. Depraved. Dangerous. Denounced for their transgressive themes and inflammatory ideas, these 20th-century classics have all been considered so seditious that they had to be suppressed. Find out what made these iconic works so threatening to governments worldwide in these superlative dramatisations, featuring stellar casts and specially composed music.Ulysses...

A bumper collection of accessible classics from the perennially popular BBC Radio 4 seriesThis diverse, wide-ranging anthology features readings of 10 of the greatest books in the English language, taken from the BBC's Book at Bedtime and performed by a stellar cast of narrators. Here are nearly 27 hours of sensational stories, from iconic romances and humorous travelogues to pioneering Modernist masterpieces and compelling explorations of the human heart....

Bloomsbury presents The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan, read by Stephen Rea.The first literary science fiction novel from Neil Jordan, visionary director of The Company of Wolves and Interview with the VampireIn a windswept corner of a forgotten peninsula, love and loss echo through the halls of a mansion built on secrets. Here memory is currency of the future, and the past refuses to stay buried.In the year 20...

'A propulsive and gripping political thriller hewn from one of The Trouble's darkest days, Connolly skilfully blends fact and fiction to arrive at something that feels blazingly true. A blistering read.' —Noel O'Regan' An essential and disturbing novel that describes the bombing of Dublin 50 years ago with insights into the ensuing cover-up'—Christy Moore'This is a vivid and absorbing fictional account of one of the darkest ...

A collection of full-cast dramatisations of Sophocles’ finest Greek tragediesOne of the three great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece, Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during his 60-year career, though only seven survive today. The most famous of these are the Theban Plays, all three of which are included in this collection alongside adaptations of Electra and Philoctetes, brought to life by celebrated writers, poets, and playwrights....