Audiobooks by Neil Hanson

"The great fire of London is lodged in the collective consciousness, and like other notorious disasters in history, continues to captivate the imaginations of people today. When preparing to write this astounding book, acclaimed author Neil Hanson discovered that there were many facets of the tragedy that remained unexplored. This enthralling, often horrifying narrative is the unforgettable culmination of his studies. In 1666, London is still recovering from its latest bouts with the bubonic plague, and memories of the Black Death are still fresh. When a small fire breaks out in a downtown bakery, it spreads with alarming speed through the crowded city streets, from one desiccated wooden structure to the next. Becoming a conflagration of epic proportions, the firestorm rages like a dragon and ultimately razes half the city. Though the fire itself may have been hell on earth, the smoldering aftermath plumbs the depths of depravity like few moments in human history."

Neil Hanson (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Ticket Collector from Belarus: An Extraordinary True Story of Britain's Only War Crimes Trial

"'Brilliantly gripping' Sunday Times; 'Compelling' Daily Mail; 'Heart-rending' Sunday Telegraph; 'Excellent' The Times; 'Engrossing' Independent The UK's only war crimes trial took place in 1999 and had its origins in the horrors of the Holocaust, but only now in The Ticket Collector from Belarus? can the full story be told. The Ticket Collector from Belarus tells the remarkable story of two interwoven journeys. Ben-Zion Blustein and Andrei Sawoniuk were childhood friends in 1930s Domachevo, a holiday and health resort in what is now Belarus. During the events that followed the Nazi invasion in 1941, they became the bitterest of enemies. After the war, Ben-Zion made his way to Israel, and 'Andrusha the bastard' to England, where he found work as a British Rail ticket collector in London. They next confronted each other in the Old Bailey, over half a century later, where one was the principal prosecution witness, and the other charged with a fraction of the number of murders he was alleged to have committed. There was no physical evidence, just one man's word against another, leaving the jury with a series of agonising dilemmas: Could any witness statement be trusted so long after the event? Was Andrusha a brutal killer, a hapless pawn or a scapegoat? And were his furious protests a sign of guilt or the justified anger of an innocent old man? Mike Anderson was gripped by the story, and so began his quest to find the truth about this astonishing case and the people at its heart. As he discovered, it was even more remarkable than he could ever have imagined. "

Mike Anderson, Neil Hanson (Author), Luke Thompson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Wish You Were Here!: The Lives, Loves and Friendships of the Butlin's Girls

"Touching true stories from the heyday of the Butlin’s holiday camps. ‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.’ With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin’s. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps’ key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime – it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution."

Lynn Russell, Neil Hanson (Author), Maggie Mash (Narrator)

Audiobook