Picture of Dorian Gray is now available as an online downloadable audio book.

“Simon Vance’s portrayal of each character is spot-on….a delightfully creepy listen.”—AudioFile

Dorian Gray, a handsome and narcissistic young man, lives thoughtlessly for his own pleasure—an attitude encouraged by the company he keeps. One day, after having his portrait painted, Dorian makes a frivolous Faustian wish: that he should always remain as young and beautiful as he is in that painting, while the portrait grows old in his stead.

The wish comes true, and Dorian soon finds that none of his wicked actions have visible consequences. Realizing that he will appear fresh and unspoiled no matter what kind of life he lives, Dorian becomes increasingly corrupt, unchecked by public opinion. Only the portrait grows degenerate and ugly, a powerful symbol of Dorian’s internal ruin.

Wilde’s dreamlike exploration of life without limits scandalized its late-Victorian audience and has haunted readers’ imaginations for more than a hundred years.

Movie DVD starring Colin Firth, Ben Barnes and Rachel Hurd-Wood releases summer 2010.

Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond Classics, Goldfinger, Casino Royale,The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, and many more.

“A rich life story is matched with an ideal reader. Andrew Lycett’s literate, well researched biography of Ian Fleming…is an absorbing account of one of the most fascinating figures of popular culture. Lycett’s sure grasp of the Bond novels also allows him to refer to pertinent and familiar scenes that reflect Fleming’s many travels and earlier experiences. Robert Whitfield narrates the text in clear, crisp BBC English…. [The] story is served well by a reader whose performance connotes a patrician equanimity and style.”—AudioFile “A thoroughly researched, definitive portrayal of a complex man…. Lycett has also succeeded in separating the author from the phenomenon while putting both in the context of their times.”—Library Journal Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world traveler, and spy, the creator of the Cold War’s archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complex and interesting than his iconic fictional character, Agent 007. Fleming’s wide ranging and exciting life inevitably provided the plausible backdrop for his Bond novels. Highly regarded in British naval intelligence for his international contacts, he masterminded numerous top secret operations, including “Golden Eye,” which is uncovered here for the first time. He was also fundamental in shaping the prototype CIA. Two months before his wedding to Ann O’Neill, the widow of a friend with whom he’d carried on a passionate affair for fifteen years, Fleming sat down to write his first book, Casino Royale, in order to soothe his nerves. Thus began the long line of Bond novels for which he would earn lasting fame.

Andrew Lycett received a history degree from Oxford University before becoming a journalist at the Sunday Times (London), where he served as a foreign correspondent in Africa and the Middle East. He has written acclaimed biographies on Ian Fleming, Dylan Thomas, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and Rudyard Kipling. He lives in London.

For the first time, Ulysses by James Joyce is now available as an MP3 audiobook download.

This masterpiece by the Dublin author is narrated by John Lee and is more than 29 hours long.

Joyce’s experimental masterpiece set a new standard for modernist fiction, pushing the English language past all previous thresholds in its quest to capture a day in the life of an Everyman in turn-of-the-century Dublin. Obliquely borrowing characters and situations from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce takes us on an internal odyssey along the current of thoughts, impressions, and experiences that make up the adventure of living an average day. As his characters stroll, eat, ruminate, and argue through the streets of Dublin, Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness narrative artfully weaves events, emotions, and memories in a free flow of imagery and associations. Full of literary references, parody, and uncensored vulgarity, Ulysses has been considered controversial and challenging, but always brilliant and rewarding.   James Joyce (1882–1941) was an Irish expatriate writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its highly controversial successor Finnegans Wake, as well as the short-story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Coco Barrington was born into a legendary Hollywood family: her mother Florence is a mega-bestselling author, and her sister Jane is one of Hollywood’s top producers. Jane has lived with her partner, Liz, for ten years, in a solid relationship. Florence, widowed but still radiant, has just begun a secret romance with a man twenty-four years her junior. And Coco, a law school dropout and the family black sheep, works as a dog walker, having fled life in the spotlight for the artsy northern California beach town of Bolinas.

When Coco reluctantly agrees to house-sit in Jane’s luxurious home, it turns out Jane’s house comes complete with an unexpected houseguest: Leslie Baxter, a dashing but down-to-earth British actor who’s fleeing a psycho ex-girlfriend. Their worlds couldn’t be more different. The attraction couldn’t be more immediate. Suddenly Coco is seeing things differently: Leslie is not just a celebrity, he’s a single dad to an adorable six-year-old girl. Her mother is a woman in love, with vulnerability and new insight. And Jane and Liz are about to take the bravest plunge of all – into parenthood.

One Day At A Time

Author:  Danielle Steele

Narrator: Dan John Miller

As Coco contemplates a future with one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, as her mother and sister settle into their lives, old wounds are healed and new families are formed – all bonded by love. With wit and intelligence, Danielle Steel explores love in all its guises, taking us into the lives of three unusual but wonderfully real couples.

One Day at a Time is at once moving, thought provoking, and utterly impossible to put down.

Deighton is a marvel…few authors writing in the rigorous and finite genre of spy fiction have mastered the craft as well as Deighton….Mexico Set is a pure tale, told by an author at the height of his power.”—Chicago Tribune “Deighton is back in his original milieu, the bleak spy world of betrayers and betrayed.”—Observer “Deighton’s best…until the next.”—Daily Mail “The poet of the spy story.”—Sunday Times The stage is set. Now, on the shadowy East-West battlefield of Mexico City, British intelligence agent Bernard Samson must entice his opposite number, a disaffected KGB major, to take the final, dramatic step—to defect. But the price of one Russian’s freedom must be paid in blood, blood that Samson unexpectedly and incriminatingly finds on his own hands. On every side, he becomes dangerously enmeshed in an intricate web of suspicion and hatred; yet how can he fight when he doesn’t know where to find his most determined enemies—or even who they are? Len Deighton was born in London. He served in the Royal Air Force, attached to the Special Investigation Branch. He then attended art school and later worked as an illustrator and photographer. In 1960 he went to France, where he wrote his first book, The Ipcress File, which became an immediate and spectacular success. Since then he has published numerous books of fiction and nonfiction, all garnering international acclaim.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. A classic tale of possessive and thwarted passion….there is something magnificent about the depth and intensity of their love….it is hard not to listen in awe when Catherine cries out, ‘I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.’”—Erica Bauermeister, 500 Great Books by Women “It is as if Emily Brontë could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality.”—Virginia Woolf     WutheringHeights is the sole novel of Emily Brontë, who died a year after its publication at the age of thirty. A tale of exceptional emotional and imaginative force, it is an arresting vision of metaphysical passion, in which nature and society, heaven and hell, and dynamic and passive forces are powerfully juxtaposed.   Wuthering Heights is the name of an old house, high up on the Yorkshire moors, occupied by the Earnshaw family. Events are set in motion by the arrival of Heathcliff, a child waif who has been living the life of a wild animal in the slums of Liverpool. Adopted by the kind Mr. Earnshaw, he is bullied and humiliated after Earnshaw’s death by the new master of the house, Hindley. But Heathcliff’s passionate and ferocious nature finds its completion in Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine.   Emily Brontë (1818-1848) published only one novel, WutheringHeights (1847), a story of doomed love and revenge, but that single work has earned its place among the masterpieces of English literature.

Jamie Oliver Shaker sounds like a useful gadget to have about the kitchen.

With Christmas just around the corner I have been thinking about buying a present for my wife. Someone mentioned the Jamie Oliver Shaker which extracts flavour from herbs, nuts, leaves etc..
They say it is great for producing pastes and dressings for vegatables and meat dishes.
Marinades were also mentioned.
But then I read a few blogs where some customers had complained about the shaker breaking easily.
I mst admit that I also read quite a few blogs which were very complimentary to the flavour shaker

Have just been given a present of tickets for mamma mia and am really looking forward to this show.
Having enjoyed the music of Abba for so many years, I never got a chance to see them live on stage and I suppose this is going to be the nearest to that experience.
They won the Eurovision song contest over 35 years ago with their entry Waterloo which went on to become a smash hit for them. They originally called the song Honey Pie for some strange reason. Glad they changed their minds.
With more than 20 of their hits in the show, this musical should not be missed.

Tickets for Mamma Mia are available countrywide.

Here are a number of interesting drama articles written by various authors.

Many High School Summer Reading Lists contain the novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman entitled The Yellow Wallpaper. This novel is also available in audio books format.
Watch a short video about The Yellow Wallpaper