Other books that might interest you

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  Wonder Boy

  Ross Willis

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  'What use is a boy who can't say his own name?'
  Sonny is twelve. He stammers and is finding his way in a world ruled by vicious vowels, confusing consonants, and the biggest beast of all – small talk. His only escape is with a comic-book hero of his own creation, who helps Sonny soar above his reality.
  But when he's cast by the headteacher in the school production of Hamlet, he soon discovers that language is power – and the real heroes are closer than he thinks.
  Ross Willis's play Wonder Boy is a 'boundingly imaginative' (The Times) drama about the power of finding your own voice. It was first directed by Sally Cookson, performed at Bristol Old Vic in 2022, named Best Play at the 2023 Writers' Guild Awards, and revived for a UK tour in 2024.

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  Biscuits for Breakfast

  Gareth Farr

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  'If you can cook, if you know flavour and taste and texture, people will pay you to do it. People always need to eat. Always.'
  They don't seem an obvious match. Joanne is spiky, defensive, a survivor; Paul is quiet, considered – and hiding profound grief for his father. But the pleasure he takes in cooking – and the astonishing food he prepares – creates a bond between them.
  When the hotel where they both work closes and they start to spiral into poverty, it throws everything up in the air – first their plans for a cookbook and a restaurant, and, eventually, even their dreams of a future together...
  Gareth Farr's play Biscuits for Breakfast is a tender, heartfelt drama about families – the ones we inherit and the ones we create – and the struggle to survive when times get tough. It opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2023, directed by Tessa Walker.

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  The Great Gatsby

  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anna Lyse...

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  Set in New York during the Jazz Age, this new adaptation tells the tragic tale of self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby. Consumed with desire for his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby draws new neighbor Nick Carraway into his desperate pursuit to win her back — and into their world of lavish wealth, wild parties, and free-flowing liquor. 
   
  Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood in July 2023. 
   
  Directed by Rosalind Ayres 
  Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg 
   
  An L.A. Theatre Works full cast recording, starring: 
   
  Janine Barris as Catherine, Party Wife, Friend and Guests 
  Nate Corddry as Nick Carraway 
  Sarah Drew as Daisy Buchanan 
  Mike McShane as Mr. McKee, Waiter, Policeman, Slagel, Second Butler, Mr. Gatz and others 
  Moira Quirk as Myrtle Wilson, Party Wife and Guests 
  Darren Richardson as George Wilson, First Butler, Owl Eyes, Nick's Dad, Klippsinger, and Guests 
  Rufus Sewell as Jay Gatsby 
  André Sogliuzzo as Meyer Wolfsheim, Mavro, Third Butler and Guests 
  Devon Sorvari as Jordan Baker 
  Matthew Wolf as Tom Buchanan 
   
  Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson 
  Prepared for Audio: Mark Holden. 
  Recording Engineer, Editor, Sound Designer and Mixer: Charles Carroll 
  Automobile Design: Mark Holden 
  Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin 
  Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner

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  Petrarch's Canzoniere -...

  Francesco Petrarch

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  Francesco Petrarch's Canzoniere (translated in English as 'Scattered Rhymes') is a collection of 14th century poems famed for their deep exploration of love, grief, spirituality and nature. Written over the course of forty years (approximately between 1328-1368), this collection includes 317 sonnets, 29 canzoni, 9 sestine, 4 madrigals and 7 ballate. 
  These Scattered Rhymes almost always return to Laura, a women who Petrarch loves deeply, whom he first saw on a Good Friday. On this same day, some years later, Laura died. But Petrarch's love does not wane, in fact at points it burns brighter. Il Canzoniere also serves as a valuable contemporary insight into 14th century religion and the role of the papacy in Christendom. 
  Petrarch's work is one of civilization's most immaculate achievements. Michael R. G. Spiller regards Il Canzoniere as 'the single greatest inspiration for the love poetry of Renaissance Europe until well into the seventeenth century'. 
  Following his acclaimed translation of Dante's Inferno, which 'immediately joins ranks with the very best available in English' (Dr Richard Lansing), Peter Thornton brings the poetry of Petrarch to the 21st Century in direct and luminous verse. 
  Here's a madrigal, number 52 in the sequence. 
  52 
  However much Diana may have pleasedthe lover who by like chance spied her bareamid the frigid water, I no less 
  delighted in the shy hill shepherdesswashing a wisp of veil to keep her hair,glinting with gold, protected from the breeze.  
  And even now, when the sky burns above,she makes me shiver with a chill of love.

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  The Poetry of John Dryden -...

  John Dryden

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  John Dryden was born on August 9th, 1631 in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire and grew up in a nearby village.  In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King's Scholar and then obtained his BA in 1654, graduating top of the list for Trinity College, Cambridge that year.  
  Returning to London during The Protectorate, Dryden found work with Cromwell's Secretary of State, John Thurloe.  At Cromwell's funeral on November 23rd 1658 he found company with the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell.  The setting was to be a sea change in English history. From Republic to Monarchy and from one set of lauded poets to what would soon become the Age of Dryden. Later that year he published the first of his great poems, Heroic Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell's death.  
  With the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 Dryden celebrated in verse with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric and with the re-opening of the theatres he began to also write plays. His first, The Wild Gallant, appeared in 1663 and whilst not successful, he was contracted to produce three plays a year for the King's Company, in which he became a shareholder. During the 1660s and '70s, theatrical writing was his main source of income.    
  In 1667, he published Annus Mirabilis, a lengthy historical poem which described the English defeat of the Dutch naval fleet and the Great Fire of London.  This work established him as the pre-eminent poet of his generation, and was crucial in his attaining the posts of Poet Laureate in 1668 and a couple of years later, historiographer royal (1670) as his talent encompassed many forms; from Poetry to Plays to translations. 
  In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. It was a national event.  
  John Dryden died on May 12th, 1700, and was initially buried in St. Anne's cemetery in Soho, before being exhumed and reburied in Westminster Abbey ten days later. 
   This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing.  Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.

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  I Daniel Blake

  Dave Johns

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  'I, Daniel Blake, am a citizen, nothing more, nothing less.'
  Dan is a carpenter. A Geordie through and through. He had a heart attack recently, but he's on the mend now.
  Katie has just arrived from London. She's finally got a council flat, somewhere for her and her daughter, Daisy. A fresh start.
  In adversity, people come together. But when the system is stacked against you, how does anyone get by? With 14.5 million people (Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2022 Poverty Report) living in poverty in the UK, this is not fiction. It is reality.
  I, Daniel Blake was originally a film – directed by Ken Loach, written by Paul Laverty and produced by Rebecca O'Brien for Sixteen Films – which won the 2016 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This touching and vital stage adaptation by Dave Johns, who played Dan in the film, toured the UK in 2023, co-produced by tiny dragon Productions, Northern Stage, Birmingham Rep and ETT, in association with Cardboard Citizens.
  'A gut-wrenching tragicomic drama… Paul Laverty's brilliantly insightful script finds much that is moving (and often surprisingly funny) in the unbreakable social bonds of so-called "broken Britain".'Guardian on Ken Loach's film

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