Other books that might interest you

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  Albert Speer (NHB Modern Plays)

  David Adger

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  A panoramic adaptation of Gita Sereny's definitive and magisterial biography of a man whose devotion to Hitler blinded him to the worst crime of the twentieth century.
  Plucked from obscurity to be Hitler's architect and Minister of War, Albert Speer became the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany and the closest Hitler had to a friend. Having narrowly escaped hanging at Nuremberg, Speer emerged from twenty years at Spandau gaol, as he thought, a changed man. But even as he publishes his bestselling accounts of the Third Reich, the extent of his complicity in Nazi crimes returns to haunt him - and his long-suffering family.
  'offers a clear-sighted examination of the psychology of guilt, denial and repentance, an unsqueamish and chilling dissection of a heart of darkness' - Mail on Sunday
  'Monumental. An ambitious, intelligent and worthwhile play' - Financial Times

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  The Poetry of Aphra Behn

  Aphra Behn

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  Aphra Behn was a prolific and well-established poet and playwright but facts about her life remain scant and difficult to confirm. What can safely be said is that Aphra Behn is regarded as a key English playwright and a major figure in Restoration theatre.  Her poetry is now far more appreciated and seen as a breakthrough for women of the 17th Century and beyond.  
   
  Aphra was baptised on 14th December 1640 and grew up with the gathering tensions leading to the English Civil War, a time of much division and difficulty as the King, Parliament, and their respective forces, came closer and then finally into open conflict. 
   
  By 1664 her marriage was over, less than a year after it began. She now used Mrs Behn as her professional name and moved towards pursuing a more sustainable and substantial career, working for the King's Company and the Duke's Company players as a scribe. Her first play ‘The Forc’d Marriage’, was staged in 1670, and thereafter many followed, including her later comic works, which were more commercially successful.  She wrote 19 plays in all and contributed to many others as well as several works of prose. 
   
  Along with her literary career there are claims she was a spy, that she travelled abroad, possibly as far as Surinam.  She also claimed to have met a slave leader in Africa and based her story ‘Oroonoko’ on his life.  Other accounts suggest that during her life she was also known as Ann Behn, Agent One-Sixty and Astrea. Her financial troubles seem to have also incurred her a brief stay in a debtors' prison. Whatever the truth, both her life and work seem rich, textured and full of adventure. 
   
  From the mid 1680’s Aphra’s health began to decline.  This was exacerbated by her continual state of debt and descent into poverty although she was often fond of saying that she had led a ‘life dedicated to pleasure and poetry.’ 
    
  Aphra Behn died on 16th April 1689. She is buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey and the inscription on her tombstone reads: "Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality."  
  1 - The Poetry of Aphra Behn - An Introduction 
  2 - The Disappointment by Aphra Behn 
  3 - On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make Busks by Aphra Behn 
  4 - The Willing Mistress by Aphra Behn 
  5 - To Lysander by Aphra Behn 
  6 - Love Armed by Aphra Behn 
  7 - On Desire by Aphra Behn 
  8 - The Counsel by Aphra Behn 
  9 - Love's Witness by Aphra Behn 
  10 - The Invitation by Aphra Behn 
  11 - To Mrs B by Aphra Behn 
  12 - On Her Loving Two Equally by Aphra Behn 
  13 - The Dream by Aphra Behn 
  14 - Song by Aphra Behn 
  15 - A Ballad on Mr J H to Amoret, Asking Why I Was So Sad by Aphra Behn 
  16 - The Return by Aphra Behn 
  17 - Oh How the Hand the Lover Ought to Prize by Aphra Behn 
  18 - The Dog in the Manger by Aphra Behn 
  19 - Angellica's Lament by Aphra Behn 
  20 - A Congratulatory Poem by Aphra Behn 
  21 - A Letter to a Brother of the Pen in Tribulation by Aphra Behn 
  22 - Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven That Died Before by Aphra Behn 
  23 - A Thousand Martyrs aka The Libertine by Aphra Behn 
  24 - On the Death of the Late Earl of Rochester by Aphra Behn

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  To My Cat

  Rosamund Marriott Watson

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of To My Cat by Rosamund Marriott Wilson. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of August 19th, 2007

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  Song (Coleridge version)

  Hartley Coleridge

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 recordings of Song by Hartley Coleridge. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of November 16th, 2008.

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  Captain Horatio Hornblower -...

  Hollywood Stage Productions

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  Hollywood is indelibly printed in our minds as the ‘go-to’ place for entertainment and has been for decades.  When there really did seem to be more stars in Hollywood than in Heaven Hollywood Stage had them performing films as radio plays – on the sponsors dime of course.  Classic films now become audiobooks with many featuring the original stars from way back when. Here's Captain Horation Hornblower starring Gregory Peck & Virginia Mayo.

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  The Very Best of William Butler...

  William Butler Yeats

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  Twenty-four of Yeats' finest poems read by Siobhan McKenna, V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, Cyril Cusack and Michael MacLiammoir.

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