The Epic of Gilgamesh

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This edition provides a prose rendering of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the cycle of poems preserved on clay tablets surviving from ancient Mesopotamia of the third millennium B.C.

One of the best and most important pieces of epic poetry from human history, predating even Homer's Iliad by roughly 1,500 years, the Gilgamesh epic tells of the various adventures of that hero-king, including his quest for immortality, and an account of a great flood similar in many details to the Old Testament's story of Noah.

The translator also provides an interesting and useful introduction explaining much about the historical context of the poem and the archeological discovery of the tablets.

1997 Edition 

Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in a small town along the Mississippi River.
The story is set in the town of "St Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up.

In the story's introduction, Twain notes:
"Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual, he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture."

William Shakespeare - The Taming of the Shrew

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The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare 

This hearty comedy has always been a favourite with audiences. 

Three suitors pursue Bianca Minola, but her father won't let her marry until her older sister, Katherine, is married. Kate is wilful, loud, volatile and above all, shrewish. 

Her suitor Petruchio is stern, jolly, and somewhat odd. A match made in heaven? 

The play has an all-star cast including:

Bob Peck, Cheryl Campbell, Moira Leslie, Robert Glenister, Stephen Tompkinson, Douglas Hodge, Christopher Fairbank, Michael Deacon, Anthony Jackson, Willam Simons, John Badley, and Paul Copley. Music composed by Mia Soteriou. 

Directed and adapted for radio by Jeremy Mortimer.

First broadcast on Radio 3 in 1988

Length: 1 hr, 59 mins

Isaac Asimov - Nemesis

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One of the last novels written by Asimov before he died. classic in every sense of the word if one is into sci-fi.

Joseph Campbell - The Grail Legend

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Those already familiar with Joseph Campbell will know he was the foremost authority on the psychological reading of Mythology in the twentieth century. 

Most famous perhaps (the power of television!) for an American PBS series with Bill Moyers, though in my opinion, tapes of his regular lectures are really the best introduction. 

This is a MP3 rip of a tape series (hence the A and B sides for those who remember them) of a lecture on the Grail Legend. King Arthur's round table of equal Knights, going out to seek the Holy Grail is literally the stuff of Myth. Just remember, those setting out on their life's quest might do worse than remember the Knights of the Round Table, who on setting out, thought that it would be ignoble to travel in a group, each took their own turning into the forest "where he saw the forest was the thickest and there was no way or path...."

Philip K. Dick - Galactic Pot Healer

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Another quality unabridged gem from the masterful Philip K. Dick. comes complete with all the totalitarian futuristic paranoia one could want. despite the cover image, Cthulhu/ Ultros are not included.

William Shakespeare - the Merry Wives Of Windsor

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One of my more favored Shakespeare comedies along the lines of "Arsenic and Old Lace" or even Impulse. this version was done by the BBC back in '03, so it has the usual excellent music and actors one would expect from the Beeb.

H.G. Wells - Collected Science Fiction

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This is H.G. Wells at his best, delving into fantastic and strange worlds.

The Time Machine, perhaps Wells' best known work, tells the story of the first time traveler. In the distant future the human race has evolved into two beings: the gentle Eloi and their dreaded cousins, the Morlocks, masters of the underworld.

From Stories of the Unusual:
"The Country of the Blind" takes place in a hidden valley where it would seem that a man with sight would be king.

"The Diamond Maker" tells of a fortune that might have been.
"The Man Who Worked Miracles" recounts the problems of defying nature.
In "Aepyornis Island", a man has a special relationship with a prehistoric bird.


"The Strange Orchid" tells of the macabre appetite of an exotic plant.
"The Cone" is a shocking story of revenge.
"The Purple Pileus" deals with a life-altering fungus.
"The Truth About Pyecraft" is a classic that explains why an overbearing fat man wears lead underwear.
"The Door in the Wall" captures the pathos of lost youth.


Read by Ralph Cosham
Total Length: 7.5 hours

BBC R3 Documentary - 'Enoch Soames Day'

[Enoch Soames by Max Beerbohm]

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June 3, 1997.
British Museum Reading Room.

While waiting for the ghost in the reading room to
appear David Benedictus and Tom Brown give the back
ground to Enoch Soames, and descibe how Enoch Soames'
Day used to be celebrated.

Shades of Hari Seldon.

BBC R4 - 'In The Glenn Miller Mood'

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Tribute programme broadcast to celebrate the hundredth anniversay of Glenn Miller's birth.

Simon Townley talks to musicians to find out why audiences remain in the mood for Miller.

Broadcast March 2, 2004

Christopher Lee - Fireside Tales

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Broadcast originally on the BBC, this is Dracula/Saruman the White doing five creepy old tales of horror. Though there is a Poe one, I personally would have loved to have had him doing a Lovecraft tale.

Beowulf

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The one and only; completely unabridged. This is the epic narrative poem that has continued on for generations and for good reasons. great father Tolkien himself adapted the dragon in it for his novel The Hobbit.