Showing results by narrator "Tim Rowe" in All Categories

Two vintage stories from the 1950s by science-fiction Grand Master Jack Vance, who wrote stories of adventure, detection, horror, and humor.

Rudyard Kipling. With our almost religious zeal to categorise and pigeon hole everything it should come as little surprise that one of the poems we learnt at school should so regularly be voted the best ever poem. Whether ‘If..’ deserves that credit or not is irrelevant to this empire wandering artist who was not only a fine story teller but a great poet of the Empires, its people and views.

Many giants of literature originate from the shores of the emerald isles: Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, the Brontes, and Austen, to which most people would willingly add the name Thomas Hardy. Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and The Mayor of Casterbridge are but three of his literary masterpieces. But let us go further and add to his canon his poems....

Joan Leeton was certainly a lovely girl. A perfect girl for an English scientist to fall in love with. Unfortunately for Will Fredericks and Bill Josephs that's exactly what happened, to both of them - and to the same girl too, Joan! But they were no ordinary scientists, and they created the most marvelous invention. A device that could perfectly replicate anything. But could it replicate a lovely girl named Joan Leeton? Could they create a love triangle with four people?

Robert Louis Stevenson. In the Scottish canon to be placed alongside Burns is high praise indeed but it’s a rightful place for one of Scotland’s finest novelists and here, poets. Born in 1850 he managed to cram much into his 44 years travelling widely to France, The States, Samoa and the South Seas.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. Rightly regarded as a major American poet, her life was sheltered, introverted, and reclusive. Despite writing over 1800 poems, only a dozen or so were published during her lifetime. Her structures and wordings are at times difficult to get to grips with, though recurring themes of religion and death certainly shadow many of her works.

Christmas, they say, comes but once a year. In these days it seems to also last for much of that year - but this volume is not just for Christmas! For the religious amongst us, this annual celebration of the Birth of Christ must seem bitter sweet: it's acknowledgment by billions of people countered by the pervasive spread of material possessions translating the event to little more than a sales pitch for material wares.

Whilst this given name and the poets included can seem at first glance broad and unmanageable, the name both historically and artistically is a near perfect fit. Those poets that pledged support to Charles I, a connoisseur and patron of fine arts, were in the main courtiers or closely aligned. Among their number were Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew and Sir John Suckling. These poets shied away from verse on religion or philosophy but mused instead on love, joy and simpler things, very much living for the ‘now’.

Written by Rudyard Kipling, the popular British Victorian writer, these origin stories are fantasized tales written with a delightful sense of whimsy that charms adults and children alike. These excellent readings by Ghizela Rowe & Tim Graham make it abundantly clear why they have become such special classics that continue to tantalize and excite the imagination.

As private as she was eccentric, Emily Dickinson published only a handful of poems in her lifetime. Most of her work, much of which dealt with themes of death and immortality, was published posthumously, to mixed reviews. But it would be her unconventional poetic style, which was most criticized early on, that would ultimately gain her recognition as one of the greatest American poets of all time. Here, a lovely sampling of the poems of Emily Dickinson is presented for your listening pleasure.

The Poetry of Kissing. In many ways the title says it all. Kissing is Poetry. The kiss is perhaps the most loving and intimate moment there is. It is amongst our most soothing and treasured memories. This volume is not about the kiss of a mother’s to her child’s scraped knee, or the father to his baby’s head as he settles down to sleep. No, when the poets here talk of the kiss, they describe the longing and desire, the want and hunger to be part of something that so connects them to another.

Here we journey with our classic poets from Christina Georgina Rossetti and Thomas Hardy to Frances W. Harper and Kipling, not only the ways, the wonders and the women who take on the responsibility to raise children no matter the problems or dangers to themselves, but also the difficulties and sometimes desperate tragedies that motherhood can involve. We hope these poems inspire every generation to reach out and better themselves and those around. This is our tribute to mothers everywhere.

The role of Fathers has changed much over the course of centuries. Men are now better suited to a role of co-parent in this modern age rather than the stilted, slightly aloof figure of times past. Being a Father is, of course, both a blessing and a burden. This modern day parenting in a frenetic fast changing world has to be both learnt and adapted from some inner well of memory from generations past as well as on the job experience.

Written by Rudyard Kipling, the popular British Victorian writer, these origin stories are fantasized tales written with a delightful sense of whimsy that charms adults and children alike. These excellent readings by Ghizela Rowe & TimGraham make it abundantly clear why they have become such special classics that continue to tantalize and excite the imagination.

In this collection we rely on the words and wisdom of such fine poets as John Milton, Emily Dickinson, Sir Walter Scott, Daniel Sheehan, Wordsworth, Longfellow and a whole host of others to absorb us in a Christmas time of hope and togetherness set amongst a landscape of winter wonderment and Nature’s palest palette. The experiences and memories they share with us speak of a time, of a world, that did have a common purpose and an ambition to share good fortune with everyone.

As the sun lengthens its days to summer, so a sport begins to dominate the thoughts and actions of many people. This game, which so encapsulated the village greens and evening song of Middle England, has now spread across the world.

This second volume of poetry for Mother's Day further explores that key relationship with our Mother through the verse of many of our greatest poets. The relationship with our Mother is one of the most powerful many of us will ever feel. It rivals those with our children and partners in a way that both permeates and challenges how and on what terms we live our lives. A woman giving birth is not only bringing life into the World, she is doing so, usually, at great pain to herself.

“If music be the food of love, play on" was one of Shakespeare’s finest lines. If music is food then poetry is the wine. In this volume of classic love poetry the flavoured capture of words and rhythms makes us think more carefully of words and their value to us. They also surprise us with their structure and meaning, layering in thoughts and emotions that we might otherwise shy away from. Poems are wonderful ways to express what we feel for a very special someone.

This volume of poetry brings together poems throughout history with very special women. The relationship with our Mother is one of the most powerful many of us will ever feel. It rivals those with our children and partners in a way that both permeates and challenges how and on what terms we live our lives. A woman giving birth is not only bringing life into the World, she is doing so, usually, at great pain to herself.