Audiobooks by Richard Lloyd Parry

Japan: A BBC documentary collection Audiobook

Japan is a land of complexity, contrast and contradictions. The world's third-largest economy, it is a powerhouse of innovation and a pioneer in technology, fashion and pop culture. But it also has a rich, ancient heritage and a deep reverence for custom, ritual and tradition. This illuminating 2-part radio collection traverses the different aspects of this fascinating country, from its famous historical figures to its diverse cultural landscape. Part 1: History opens with Japan in Five Lives, in which cultural historian Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from the country's past to answer the question 'Who are the Japanese'? In Killing Time in Imperial Japan, he explores early 20th Century Tokyo, a bustling, cosmopolitan capital where the meaning of 'time' was hotly contested. Dark Blossoms sees him examining the doubts and misgivings accompanying Japan's rapid embrace of modernity, while in Japanese Tsunami, broadcasters Richard Lloyd Parry and Matthew Sweet discuss the devastating natural disaster that rocked the country in 2011. In Land of the Rising Sums, Alex Bellos visits Kyoto to ask why Asian cultures seem so much better at maths; in Japan and Religion, Roy Jenkins discusses the place of religious traditions in modern Japan; and in Supernatural Japan, Christopher Harding looks at how the Japanese have used ghosts and ghost stories to make sense of their world. Part 2: Culture celebrates Japan's art, literature and film. In Japan Now 2020, Philip Dodd talks to writers Hiromi Ito and Yukiko Motoya and photographer Tomoko Sawada about women's roles in Japanese culture today. Meanwhile, in Images of Japan, illustrator Fumio Obata and manga translator Jocelyne Allen discuss Japanese comic book imagery, and we join novelists Kyoko Nakajima and Yuya Sato in conversation with Christopher Harding. Landmark: Seven Samurai and Landmark: Rashomon see Matthew Sweet and Rana Mitter investigating the stories behind Akira Kurosawa's two most influential films, in the company of guests including film scholar Ian Christie and authors SF Said, David Peace and Natasha Pulley. The Tale of Genji takes us into the shimmering world of medieval Japan, as Rana Mitter explores Murasaki Shikibu's masterpiece, widely considered to be the world's first novel. Finally, in Godzilla and Hayao Miyazaki, Christopher Harding considers cinematic depictions of Japanese fear, as exemplified by the legendary monster king and the 2013 animated film The Wind Rises. Credits First broadcast on the following dates: Japan in Five Lives Presented by Christopher Harding Produced by Sheila Cook Radio 3: Daimatsu 'The Demon' Hirobumi 26 Jul 2021 Tezuka Osamu: Godfather of Manga 27 Jul 2021 Oda Nobunaga: Warlord 28 Jul 2021 Murasaki Shikibu: Imperial Insider 29 Jul 2021 Himiko: Shaman Queen 30 Jul 2021 Killing Time in Imperial Japan Presented by Christopher Harding Produced by Luke Mulhall Radio 3, 31 Mar 2017 Dark Blossoms Presented by Christopher Harding Produced by Sheila Cook Radio 3: Deer Cry Hall 23 Apr 2018 Happy Families 24 Apr 2018 Rebranding the Buddha 25 Apr 2018 The Art of the Heist 26 Apr 2018 Japan Refusal 27 Apr 2018 Japanese Tsunami With Richard Lloyd Parry and Matthew Sweet Radio 3, 19 Apr 2018 Land of the Rising Sums Presented by Alex Bellos Produced by Alexandra Feachem Radio 4, 29 Oct 2012 Japan and Religion Presented by Roy Jenkins With Erica Baffelli, Christopher Hood, Kiyo Roddis and Nathanael Ayling Radio Wales, 29 Sep 2019 Supernatural Japan Presented by Christopher Harding Produced by Luke Mulhall Radio 3, 22 Apr 2018 Japan Now 2020 Presented by Philip Dodd With Hiromi Ito, Tomoko Sawada, Yukiko Motoya and Motoyuki Shibata Produced by Luke Mulhall Radio 3, 19 Feb 2020 Images of Japan Presented by Christopher Harding With Fumio Obata, Jocelyne Allen, Yuya Sato and Kyoko Nakajima Produced by Luke Mulhall Radio 3, 21 Feb 2019 Landmark: Seven Samurai Presented by Matthew Sweet With Professor Ian Christie, Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, SF Said and Alexander Jacoby Produced by Zahid Warley Radio 3, 25 Mar 2014 Landmark: Rashomon Presented by Rana Mitter With David Peace, Natasha Pulley, Yuna Tasaka and Jasper Sharp Produced by Luke Mulhall Radio 3, 25 Apr 2018 The Tale of Genji Presented by Rana Mitter With Dennis Washburn, Jennifer Guest and Christopher Harding Produced by Luke Mulhall Radio 3, 26 May 2016 Godzilla and The Wind Rises Presented by Matthew Sweet With Christopher Harding Produced by Zahid Warley Radio 3, 13 May 2014 © 2022 Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 Studios Distribution Ltd.

Alex Bellos, Christopher Harding, David Peace, Matthew Sweet, Natasha Pulley, Philip Dodd, Rana Mitter, Richard Lloyd Parry, Roy Jenkins, SF Said, Sf Said (Author), Various (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone

The definitive account of what happened, why, and above all how it felt, when catastrophe hit Japan-by the Japan correspondent of The Times (London) and author of People Who Eat Darkness On March 11, 2011, a powerful earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of northeast Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than eighteen thousand people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned. It was Japan's greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings, and met a priest who exorcised the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village that had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own. What really happened to the local children as they waited in the schoolyard in the moments before the tsunami? Why did their teachers not evacuate them to safety? And why was the unbearable truth being so stubbornly covered up? Ghosts of the Tsunami is a soon-to-be classic intimate account of an epic tragedy, told through the accounts of those who lived through it. It tells the story of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and the struggle to find consolation in the ruins.

Richard Lloyd Parry (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Audiobook

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo-and

Lucie Blackman-tall, blond, twenty-one years old-stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000 and disappeared. The following winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. The seven months in between had seen a massive search for the missing girl involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, and Lucie's desperate but bitterly divided parents. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult or snatched by human traffickers? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? And what did her work as a hostess in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo really involve? Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, followed the case from the beginning. Over the course of a decade, as the rest of the world forgot but the trial dragged on, he traveled to four continents to interview those connected with the story, assiduously followed the court proceedings, and won unique access to the Japanese detectives who investigated the case. Ultimately he earned the respect of the victim's family and delved deep into the mind and background of the man accused of the crime-Joji Obara, described by the judge as "unprecedented and extremely evil." The result is a book at once thrilling and revelatory. "A masterpiece of writing this surely is, but it is more than that-it is a committed, compassionate, courageous act of journalism that changes the way we think. Everyone who has ever loved someone and held that life dear should read this stunning book, and shiver."-Chris Cleave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Bee

Richard Lloyd Parry (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Audiobook