Audiobooks narrated by Jonathan Aris

Lubji Hoch escapes from the Nazis, moves to Berlin and changes his name to Richard Armitage. After a successful career in the British Army, he takes over a struggling newspaper and with unrivalled ruthlessness begins building his media empire. Meanwhile, Keith Townsend, the son of a millionaire and Oxford educated, returns to Australia from London to take over his father’s newspaper with similar ambitions. As both men move their quest for power to the world stage, they realise they are more than a match for one another’s brilliance and ambition. Their rivalry leads them to the brink of financial ruin and finally to the ultimate showdown where one will become the world’s most powerful man, and the other will succumb to tragedy. Based on the rivalry between media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, this fast-paced, suspenseful thriller full of status, corruption and deceit will captivate fans of Archer’s blockbuster Kane and Abel. The Fourth Estate is narrated by Jonathan Aris, a British television, film and theatre actor. He has appeared in 'Sherlock', the 'Night Manager' alongside Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, and played the angelic quartermaster in 'Good Omens'. - Jeffrey Archer is a bestselling British author and former politician. He was educated at Oxford and went on to become a Member of Parliament, the deputy chair of the Conservative Party as well as sitting in the House of Lords. His political career ended in scandal and he turned to writing, where he has been published in over 250 countries. He is perhaps most famous for the 'Clifton Chronicles' and his blockbuster 'Kane and Abel' which was number one on the New York Time’s Bestseller list and inspired a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss and Sam Neill. After he was imprisoned for perjury in 2001, he wrote his highly acclaimed non-fiction series, Prison Diaries – 'Hell', 'Purgatory' and 'Heaven' – which were inspired by his experiences and loosely structured around Dante’s Inferno.

Jeffrey Archer (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

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Lampedusa

In the Sicily of the ’50s, still haunted by memories of Fascism and the war, Giuseppe Tomasi, the last Prince of Lampedusa, struggles to complete the novel that will be his lasting legacy, The Leopard. In 1943, an Allied bomb destroyed the Lampedusa palace in Palermo; in 1955, Giuseppe Tomasi is diagnosed with advanced emphysema. Shortly after, profoundly aware of his mortality, he begins work on a novel, imagining the life of his great-grandfather Don Giulio, astronomer prince and head of the family at the time of the Risorgimento. Giuseppe Tomasi is a veteran of the previous war, while his wife Alessandra – ‘Licy’ – a Baltic German aristocrat, now lives in exile, after her native Latvia was absorbed into the Soviet Union. The childless couple are survivors of a vanishing world of European aristocracy, living in the present yet profoundly aware of the past. Steven Price takes us into the mind of the writer, his memories of war and loss, his complex relationships with his family, and inhabits the heart of a man facing down the end of his life and the end of his line, struggling to make something of lasting worth while there is still time. Achingly haunting and beautifully conceived, Steven Price’s Lampedusa tells the intensely moving story of one man’s awakening to the possibilities of life, as he nears its end.

Steven Price (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

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Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror

Victor Sebestyen's riveting biography of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin-the first major biography in English in nearly two decades-is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century but also a fascinating portrait of Lenin the man. Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess, and the English classics, Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. Sebestyen traces the story from Lenin's early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history. Uniquely, Sebestyen has discovered that throughout Lenin's life his closest relationships were with his mother, his sisters, his wife, and his mistress. The long-suppressed story told here of the love triangle that Lenin had with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his beautiful, married mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a more complicated character than that of the coldly one-dimensional leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. With Lenin's personal papers and those of other leading political figures now available, Sebestyen gives is new details that bring to life the dramatic and gripping story of how Lenin seized power in a coup and ran his revolutionary state. The product of a violent, tyrannical, and corrupt Russia, he chillingly authorized the deaths of thousands of people and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for a greater ideal. An old comrade what had once admired him said that Lenin "desired the good . . . but created evil." This included his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to horrifying new heights. In Lenin, Victor Sebestyen has written a brilliant portrait of this dictator as a complex and ruthless figure, and he also brings to light important new revelations about the Russian Revolution, a pivotal point in modern history.

Victor Sebestyen (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

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The Last Dog on Earth

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian J Walker, read by David John and Jonathan Aris. Every dog has its day... And for Lineker, a happy go lucky mongrel from Peckham, the day the world ends is his: finally a chance to prove to his owner just how loyal he can be. Reg, an agoraphobic writer with an obsession for nineties football, plans to wait out the impending doom in his second floor flat, hiding himself away from the riots outside. But when an abandoned orphan shows up in the stairwell of their building, Reg and Lineker must brave the outside in order to save not only the child, but themselves... 'Very few dystopian novels push through to the horrors explored here. Fewer still reach these heights of lyricism, humour and decency.' - Daily Mail

Adrian J Walker, Adrian J. Walker (Author), David John, Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

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The Outsiders

They used to meet for a smoke behind the MI5 building. They were disbanded after the death of the youngest member of their team at the hands of a Russian gangster. Now, suddenly, the Graveyard Team is being called back together. Word is that the gangster is staying at a villa in Spain - the Costa del Sol being a multi-billion dollar hub in the worldwide drug trade. The Outsiders is vintage Seymour: action, suspense, brilliant characterisation and fascinating insight into a full-scale war - the war against organised crime, which is happening all around us, every day

Gerald Seymour (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

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Good Evening Behind 'Beyond The Fringe'

Roy Smiles' celebration of the 'Beyond the Fringe' team takes a funny and affectionate look at how four young men from Oxbridge changed the face of British comedy. Starring Matt Addis as Alan Bennett, Rory Kinnear as Peter Cook, Jonathan Aris as Jonathan Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch as Dudley Moore. A CPL production for BBC Radio 4.

Roy Smiles (Author), Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonathan Aris, Matthew Addis, Rory Kinnear (Narrator)

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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

A Booker finalist and Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winner, David Mitchell was called 'prodigiously daring and imaginative' by Time and 'a genius' by the New York Times Book Review. With this sweeping work of historical fiction, he confirms his place among the world's greatest novelists In 1799, the artificial island of Dejima lies in Nagasaki Harbor as the Empire of Japan's de facto gate blocking Western influence. Here, at the farthest outpost of the Dutch East Indies Company, Jacob de Zoet comes to make his fortune before reuniting with his fianc'e in Holland. But fate takes a dangerous turn when Jacob'who, like all outsiders, is not allowed to set foot on the mainland'falls hopelessly in love with a young Japanese woman. Filled with lush imagery and populated by authentic characters, this epic novel is beautifully complemented by the dual performance of narrators Jonathan Aris and Paula Wilcox. 'Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money.''Kirkus Reviews, starred review '' a dense and satisfying historical with literary brawn and stylistic panache.' 'Publishers Weekly, starred review

David Mitchell (Author), Jonathan Aris, Paula Wilcox (Narrator)

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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Imagine a nation banishing the outside world for two centuries, forbidding its subjects to leave its shores on pain of death, and harbouring a deep mistrust of European ideas. Set in Japan in 1799, a young Dutch clerk, Jacob de Zoet, is about to embark on a strange adventure of duplicity, love and murder is about to begin - and all the while the axis of global power is turning...

David Mitchell (Author), Jonathan Aris, Multiple Narrators, Paula Wilcox (Narrator)

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The Collaborator

Deadlier than the Mafia, the Camorra never forget, and never forgive. She is an Italian accountancy student in London, and her boyfriend Eddie teaches at a language school. But the prime reason Immacolata Borelli came to Britain was to look after her gangster brother, wanted for multiple murders back home in Naples. For the Borelli clan are major players in the Camorra, a crime network more close-knit and ruthless than the Sicilian Mafia. Mario Castrolami is a senior Carabinieri investigator of the Camorra, his career dedicated to destroying the corruption and violence of the clans. When Immacolata calls from London to say she is prepared to collaborate with justice - to betray her own family - he knows she is setting in motion a terrifying and unpredictable series of events. The Borellis will not lose their criminal empire without a vicious fight. They will use anything and anyone to prevent her from giving evidence against them. Even Eddie, and Eddie's life. (P)2009 Hodder & Stoughton

Gerald Seymour (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

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The Various Flavours of Coffee

It is 1895. Robert Wallis, would-be poet, bohemian and impoverished dandy, accepts a commission from coffee merchant Samuel Pinker to categorise the different tastes of coffee - and encounters Pinker's free-thinking daughters, Philomenia, Ada and Emily. As romance blossoms with Emily, Robert realises that the muse and marriage may not be incompatible after all. Sent to Abyssinia to make his fortune in the coffee trade, he becomes obsessed with slave girl, Fikre. He decides to use the money he has saved to buy her from her owner - a decision that will change not only his own life, but the lives of the three Pinker sisters...

Anthony Capella (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Jonathan Aris