検索キーワード： ナレーター "Michael Jayston" すべてのカテゴリー

Returning to England after the dramatic capture of Martinique, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho attains an all too brief respite from war and politics. But the shadow of a new conflict already darkens the horizon. The old enemy, France, forges an uneasy alliance with America - threatening the safety of British trade routes. Although ordered immediately to the Indian Ocean, Bolitho’s thoughts are of his own - and the Navy’s - past. Both Nelson and Collingwood died in their country’s service.

Spring 1802. Richard Bolitho is summoned to the Admiralty to receive his orders for a difficult and thankless mission.... The recent Peace of Amiens is already showing signs of strain as old enemies wrangle over colonies won and lost during the war. In the little 64-gun Achates, Bolitho sails west for the Caribbean, to hand over the island of San Felipe to the French. But diplomacy is not enough.

Spring 1792. A troubled peace with France means that even a frigate captain as famous as Richard Bolitho is forced to swallow his pride and visit the Admiralty daily to plead for a ship. But, as the clouds of war begin to rise once more over the Channel, all he is offered is command of three topsail cutters. His task is to track down deserters, but the 'Brotherhood' he comes up against are brutal and dangerous.

On the eve of Waterloo, a sense of finality and cautious hope pervade a nation wearied by decades of war. But peace will present its own challenges to Adam Bolitho, captain of His Majesty's Ship Unrivalled, as many of his contemporaries face the prospect of discharge. The life of a frigate captain is always lonely, even more so for Adam, mourning the death of his uncle.

It is February 1813. With convoys from Canada and the Caribbean falling victim to American privateers, Sir Richard Bolitho returns to Halifax to pursue a war he knows will not be won, but which neither Britain nor the United States can afford to lose. England's youngest admiral desires only peace. But peace will not be found in the icy Canadian waters, where a young, angry nation asserts its identity and men who share a common heritage die in close and bloody action.

In February, 1806, the frigate carrying Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho drops anchor off the shores of southern Africa. Bolitho's instructions are to assist in hastening the campaign in Africa where an expeditionary force is attempting to recapture Cape Town from the Dutch. Bolitho is still brooding over the loss of his flagship, and hi socntinuing personal troubles are only brightened by his love for Catherine, Lady Somervell.

October 1789, New South Wales, and into Sydney, capital of Britain's infant colony, sails the frigate Tempest. She is one of His Majesty's ships employed in policing the new southern trade routes. Her captain is Richard Bolitho, who hopes to be ordered home to England. Instead he is dispatched on a mission to the islands of the Great South Sea, where he must face hazards of fickle winds, pirates, and savage islanders.

Plymouth, July 1801: Richard Bolitho's small squadron, still repairing battle scars earned in heavy action at Copenhagen, has been months away from the sea. But the Admiralty needs Bolitho. After eight years of war with France, Britain must make a gesture that will show her strength and determination - and one which will dramatically weaken the French cause. The Admiralty wants to attack, so Rear-Admiral Bolitho must follow his flag's tradition of victory.

January 1782, Portsmouth. His Britannic Majesty's frigate Phalarope is ordered to the assistance of the hard-pressed squadrons in the Caribbean. Aboard is her new commander - Richard Bolitho. To all appearances the Phalarope is everything a young captain could wish for. But beneath the surface she is a deeply unhappy ship - her wardroom torn by petty greed and ambition, her deckhands driven to near mutiny by senseless ill treatment.

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt communicated by letter from 1939 to 1945 on a direct and personal basis. Their letters chart the events of the war as they unfold and also their attempts to influence and overcome the great tyranny of Nazism.

New York, 1777. As the American Revolution rages on the mainland, the British Navy prepares for action at sea. Against a growing fleet of American and French privateers, the Navy must maintain its blockade of Washington's vital military supplies. Caught up in the turmoil, junior officer Richard Bolitho finds himself having to make momentous decisions in the heat of battle, decisions that will affect the lives of many men, and perhaps the outcome of history.

October 1772, Portsmouth. Sixteen-year-old Richard Bolitho waits to join the Gorgon, ordered to sail to the west coast of Africa and to destroy those who challenge the King's Navy. For Bolitho, and for many of the crew, it is a severe and testing initiation into the game of seamanship.

In March 1808, as Napoleon holds Portugal and threatens his old ally Spain, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho is dispatched once more to the Cape of Good Hope to establish a permanent naval force there. Setting aside his bitter memories and the anguish of a friendship betrayed, Bolitho takes passage in the ill-fated Golden Plover. With him sail others commanded by duty and lured by danger - and those who wish only to escape.

September 1804: England stands alone against France and the fleets of Spain, anticipating invasion. Vice-admiral Richard Bolitho has his own troubles to settle at home too. But his time on land is broken by an urgent summons from the King. Once more Bolitho hoists his flag above the veteran 74-gun ship Hyperion and sets sail - this time with a new squadron headed for the Caribbean.

The Blitz continued to rain down on the shell and morale of the Nation’s defences. In the cold grey waters of the North Atlantic wolfpacks of enemy U boats hunted down with ruthless efficiency the supply lines that could keep Britain in the war. Through the year the enemy produced many of their grandest victories but Britain was able to stabilise its position in the Middle East although setbacks at the hands of the newly arrived Rommel, the Desert Fox, were encountered in North Africa.

Four exciting novelisations. In The Mysterious Planet, the Doctor is brought before the court of his fellow Time Lords. In Mindwarp, the second piece of evidence against the Doctor is presented to the court. One thing is certain: on the evidence of the Matrix, the Doctor is guilty as charged! In Terror of the Vervoids, the Matrix relates how the Doctor and Mel arrive on a space liner just as a series of grisly murders begins. In The Ultimate Foe, the Doctor asserts that the evidence of the Matrix has been tampered with.

Conceived jointly as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel, which on one level is an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.

In this final volume of diaries, Tony Benn reflects on the compensations and the disadvantages of old age. With the support of a small circle of friends and his extended family, he continues his activities on behalf of social justice, peace and accountability in public life, to a background of political change and the international economic crisis.

From 1381 - when Sir John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice of England, was killed during the Peasant’s Revolt - to 1906, when the Duke of Devonshire’s resignation brought down the Tory government: the family’s fortunes (and misfortunes) mirrored the life of the nation. The Devonshires is also the story of the huge support networks of servants and labour needed to sustain the supremacy of a family whose accumulated wealth, from the dissolution of the monasteries to the coming of the railways, saw them found ship ports, holiday resorts, scientific laboratories, stud farms and some of the most significant buildings in the land.

Best-selling author Donald James grew up in World's End, Chelsea during the Blitz years. Just on the edge of a fashionable middle class world, his childhood experience was in stark contrast to the privileged, bourgeois lifestyle glimpsed a few hundred yards away. He grew up in stark poverty and depredation, a hard existence yet shot through by the humour and courage of his family and neighbours.