Showing results by narrator "Lenny Henry" in All Categories

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes.

Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times best seller American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny, a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure house of story, and we are lucky to have him."

"Jack and the Beanstalk", read by Lenny Henry
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears", read by Sheridan Smith
"Puss in Boots", read by Lenny Henry
"Snow White", read by Sheridan Smith. Here are four fantastic stories, full of magic and fun, that young children are sure to love!

At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them.

The brand new BBC Radio 4 full-cast series based on And Another Thing… the sixth book in the famous Hitchhiker’s Guide 'trilogy'. Forty years on from the first ever radio series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent and friends return in six brand new episodes, in which they are thrown back into the Whole General Mish Mash in a rattling adventure involving Viking Gods and Irish Confidence Tricksters, with our first glimpse of Eccentrica Gallumbits and a brief but memorable moment with The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal.

Leading the field of artificial intelligence, Halfway, a subsidiary of Soul-Tech, provides customers with the opportunity to digitally upload their minds so that in the eventuality of their death, loved ones will be able to communicate with an AI simulation and gain closure. But at what cost?A year after her brother Mark’s death, Florence is still consumed by grief. And though her parents encourage her not to dwell on the past, Florence decides to visit Halfway and speak to the simulation of Mark that was created not long before his passing.

Spanning Gaiman’s career to date, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction is a captivating collection from one of the world’s most beloved writers, chosen by those who know his work best: his devoted fans. A brilliant representation of Gaiman's groundbreaking, entrancing, endlessly imaginative fiction, this captivating volume includes excerpts from each of his five novels for adults—Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane—and nearly fifty of his short stories.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth is a classic international best seller and an unforgettable portrait of London. One of the most talked about fictional debuts ever, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-listen.

Delight in a collection of the world's favourite children's stories voiced by our favourite celebrities. From a fantastic edition of Beauty and the Beast read by the brilliant comedian, writer and actor Rik Mayall to the incredibly captivating Rapunzel told by the renown Bobby Davro and many, many more...

Rising to the Surface traces Lenny Henry's career through the '80s and '90s. The 16-year-old who won a talent competition now has to navigate his way through the seas of professional comedy, learning his craft through sheer graft and hard work. We follow Lenny through a period of great creativity—prize-winning TV programmes, summer seasons across Britain, the starring role in a Hollywood film, stand-up gigs in New York and a gala wedding to Dawn French. But with each rise, there is a fall, the most traumatic being the death of his mother.

Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, "I'm your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy." Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can. But Leon isn't in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he can't protect his little family from everything.

Regular team captains Stephen Fry and John Sessions are joined by Lenny Henry, Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Enn Reitel, Jimmy Mulville, Nonny Williams, Griff Rhys Jones, Kate Robbins, John Bird, Rory Bremner and Jon Glover as they battle their way through a succession of games and romp through a world of literary styles, TV theme tunes, and film genres. Chairman Clive Anderson desperately tries to hold the whole thing together, and the guests make it up as they go along in this riot of improvisation.

In 1975, a gangly black 16-year-old from Dudley, decked out in floppy bow tie and Frank Spencer beret, appeared on our TV screens for the first time. So began the transformation from apprentice factory worker to future national treasure of Sir Lenny Henry. In his long-awaited autobiography, Lenny tells the extraordinary story of his early years and sudden rise to fame.

Everything changes for Fat Charlie Nancy, the South London boy so called by his father, the day his dad drops dead while doing karaoke. Charlie didn't know his estranged father was a god - Anansi the trickster, master of mischief and social disorder. He never knew he had a brother either. Now brother Spider is on his doorstep, about to make life more interesting...and a lot more dangerous. It's a meeting that will take Fat Charlie from his London home to Florida, the Caribbean, and the very beginning of the world itself. Or the end of the world, depending on which way you're looking.

Delight in a collection of famous children's stories performed by our favourite celebrities. From a fantastic edition of Beauty and the Beast read by the brilliant comedian, writer and actor Rik Mayall to an awe-inspiring and captivating retelling of Sleeping Beauty by the renowned Lenny Henry and many, many more...

Lenny Henry used to hate Shakespeare. For over 35 years he avoided anything to do with the Bard – until, in 2006, he decided to find out just what the rest of the world saw in him. In this enthralling collection, we hear how Lenny’s late-flowering passion for the legendary playwright’s works set him on the path that led to his sell-out stage debut as Othello. Bringing together this behind-the-scenes journey with the final result, this collection culminates in Lenny’s standout performance in a dynamic full-cast radio production of Othello.

Bran and Fran love living with their mum, who is the storyteller at the Once Upon a Wow bookstore in their small Midlands town. But when mum goes missing and her stories turn out to be a portal to another world, they're going to have a huge, magical adventure on their hands. Luckily, they have Wilma, the Wizard's Wife, and Zack, the wisecracking Zebracorn, to help them on their journey. And they're going to need help because there are evil princes, mud monsters and Viking armies all standing in their way.

With a writer as prolific as Neil Gaiman, what do you check out next? Or, perhaps, where do you begin? Spanning Gaiman's career to date, this collection of groundbreaking, entrancing, endlessly imaginative fiction will answer those questions. Curated by Gaiman's devoted listeners around the world, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction includes excerpts from each of his five novels for adults - Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys and The Ocean at the End of the Lane - and nearly 50 of his short stories.

Cunning. Corrupt. Charismatic. The degenerate characters in this collection shun conventional morality, and will stop at nothing to get what they want... These five sensational dramas, set in locations ranging from 16th century Venice to Victorian England, revolve around their unscrupulous actions – and the devastating consequences of the choices they make.

Miles Jupp stars as James Boswell, Dr Johnson's time-travelling biographer, with a host of top actors and comedians as his celebrity interviewees. Before James Boswell penned a biography of his friend, Dr Johnson, they were both nobodies. But his Life of Samuel Johnson made them famous - so now Boswell's out to work his magic on other celebrities. Travelling through the centuries, he gives 12 legendary figures the Boswell treatment, hoping to do for them what he did for Johnson....