Audiobooks narrated by Joseph Kloska

Brought to you by Penguin. Our countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In England, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history. In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies; the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles; wild thyme; granite cliffs; rock pools and sandy beaches; red deer standing at ancient oaks; the wayside flowers of the lane; hedgehogs and hares; and snow on the high peak. Each landscape - be it calm green or wild moor, plunging cliff or flatland fen - has shaped our idea of ourselves, our sense of what it is to be in England. In a stunning package, complete with decorated boards, endpapers, chapterheads and a map, England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel's nature writing. © John Lewis-Stempel 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

John Lewis-Stempel (Author), Joseph Kloska, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Woman's Battles and Transformations

Brought to you by Penguin. Everything started with a photo. To see her free, hurtling fulsomely towards the future, made me think back to the life she shared with my father. Seeing the photo reminded me that those twenty years of devastation were not anything natural but were the result of external forces - society, masculinity, my father - and that things could have been otherwise. One day, Édouard Louis finds a photograph of his mother from twenty years ago. A picture of a happy young woman, full of hopes and dreams. Growing up, Édouard only knew his mother's sadness, as she found herself trapped in the humdrum life of a housewife, and her struggles against the dominant world of men. What happened in those years since the photo was taken? Then, at the age of forty-five, his mother frees herself from this oppression. She leaves her husband and her old life behind, to start a new one in Paris. A Woman's Battles and Transformations is Édouard Louis's most tender book yet. It reckons with the cruel systems that govern our lives, with politics and power - and with the possibility of escape. It is an exquisite and loving portrait of a mother, and an honouring of her self-discovery and liberation as she chooses to live on her own terms. Translated from the French by Tash Aw 'Édouard Louis is one of the most important literary voices of his generation' Guardian © Édouard Louis 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Edouard Louis, Édouard Louis (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tomorrow, Today!: The Complete Series 1 and 2: A BBC Radio 4 comedy

1961. Radio producer Hugo is proud of his new science fiction show. Admittedly, the dialogue is somewhat creaky, the two lead actors despise each other, and the sound effects were knocked up in the engineer's kitchen - but it has rocket-ships, hover-cars, robots and Martians. It's the world of the future, where anything can happen: and often does... There's just one problem: nobody's listening. The future's about to be a thing of the past - until government intervention saves the series from cancellation. With the Russians forging ahead with space travel, BBC bigwigs are persuaded that Tomorrow, Today! could serve as a useful anti-Soviet propaganda tool. Rescued from the scrapheap, the show is free to head fearlessly for the stars - including a renowned Shakespearean thespian cast in the role of an android. But reviews are poor, the Home Office won't stop interfering, and as 1962 dawns, things are looking dark. Two suspicious deaths lead to rumours of a curse, Hugo is tempted away to TV, and with Harold Macmillan set to guest star, the programme is infiltrated by a spy. As the Cuban missile crisis escalates and the Cold War hots up, the whole show relocates to Wales - but will that prove any safer? Written by award-winning dramatist Christopher William Hill (On the Rocks), this amusing, affectionate sci-fi spoof stars Joseph Kloska, Peter Bowles, Cheryl Campbell and John Fortune. Produced by Liz Webb First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6-27 October 2006 (Series 1), 28 January-3 March 2008 (Series 2) Cast Nigel Lavery - Peter Bowles Sylvia Hann - Cheryl Campbell Godfrey Winnard- John Fortune Sir Angus McNairn - Gary Waldhorn Huqo Kellerman - Joseph Kloska Douglas Bennings/Harold Macmillan - Jon Glover Colin Franks - Paul Richard Biggin Miss Pickford/Waitress/Advert voice/Producer - Miranda Keeling Sir Monty - Leslie Phillips Rex the pianist - Marc Willcox Keith Wood - Sam Pamphilon Mrs Tinkler/Cynthia Valentine - Rachel Atkins Graham Tinkler - Lloyd Thomas Delivery boy/Director - Alex Lanipekun Georgina Barrett - Carolyn Pickles Burton/Porter - Peter Marinker Fenella Sayers - Ania Gordon Angela/Miss Thurwell - Anna Bengo Continuity/Roger Aspinall - Simon Treves Veronica Walters - Johannah Tincey Henderson/Mr Thomas - Ben Crowe Secretary/Tannoy - Laura Molyneux

Christopher William Hill (Author), Cheryl Campbell, John Fortune, Joseph Kloska, Peter Bowles (Narrator)

Audiobook

Memoirs

Brought to you by Penguin. 'Endlessly entertaining... Good, rollicking stuff, and a delight to read... Sir Kingsley Amis is surely one of the funniest men alive' Auberon Waugh, Sunday Telegraph Elegant, provocative and hugely entertaining, Kingsley Amis's memoirs are filled with anecdotes, experiences and portraits of famous friends, family, acquaintances (and a few eminent foes). From his childhood days to Oxford and army life, his travels abroad and his years as a successful novelist, Memoirs offers extraordinary insights into a unique literary life. © Kingsley Amis 1991 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Kingsley Amis (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

On the Rocks: The Complete Series 1 and 2: A BBC Radio 4 comedy drama

'A radio play by Christopher William Hill is something to look forward to with pleasure' - Radio Times It's the late 1930s, and even on the remote island of St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly war seems inevitable. But the islanders have their own battles to contend with, stuck on a rock flung 27 miles out into the Atlantic with only their natural grit and gallows humour to see them through. When a stranger in a suit arrives on the island, the locals decide he must be the undertaker come to deal with the body of the late postmaster. Then they discover he is not an undertaker after all - so they naturally conclude that he's a spy. But the truth is worse than that - his name is Frank Gunwallow and he's been sent over from Penzance to modernise the Post Office, around which their world revolves. The islanders are determined to resist this unwelcome change, and deeply suspicious of the young man from the mainland. Frank realises he's got a fight on his hands - and it'll take more than a shiny new telegraph machine to win them over... Created by award-winning novelist and scriptwriter Christopher William Hill, this gentle comedy stars Joseph Kloska as Frank, with Christine Absalom, Peter Marinker and Alex Tregear. Produced and directed by Mary Peate Sound by Jenni Burnett, Anne Bunting, Graham Harper and Caleb Knightley Production Co-ordinator: Jessica Brown First broadcast BBC Radio 4: 29 November-20 December 2013 (Series 1), 11 May-1 June 2015 (Series 2) Cast Frank Gunwallow - Joseph Kloska Mary - Bec Applebee Grace - Christine Absalom Tommy - Stuart Fox Ben - Alex Palmer Len - Ed Gaughan Reverend Tregarthan - Peter Marinker Morwenna-May - Alex Tregear Pender - Christopher William Hill Anthony - David Seddon Signor Di Bicci - Sam Dale

Christopher William Hill (Author), Alex Palmer, Alex Tregear, Bec Applebee, Christine Absalom, Christopher William Hill, Ed Gaughan, Joseph Kloska, Peter Marinker, Stuart Fox (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Mirror and the Light: An Adaptation in 30 Minute Episodes

4th Estate presents the essential adaptation of The Mirror and the Light. ‘A masterpiece’ Guardian ‘It is a book not read, but lived’ Telegraph ‘Her Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century’ Observer ‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’ England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

History of Violence: A Novel

History of Violence is international bestselling French author Edouard Louis's autobiographical audiobook about surviving a shocking sexual assault and coping with the post-traumatic stress disorder of its aftermath. On Christmas Eve 2012, in Paris, the novelist Édouard Louis was raped and almost murdered by a man he had just met. This act of violence left Louis shattered; its aftermath made him a stranger to himself and sent him back to the village, the family, and the past he had sworn to leave behind. A bestseller in France-challenged and vindicated in the courts-History of Violence is a short nonfiction account with the victim as its subject. Moving seamlessly and hypnotically between past and present, between Louis's voice and the voice of an imagined narrator, History of Violence has the exactness of a police report and the searching, unflinching curiosity of memoir at its best. It records not only the casual racism and homophobia of French society but also their subtle effects on lovers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. It represents a great step forward for a young writer whose acuity, skill, and depth are unmatched by any novelist of his generation, in French or English.

édouard Louis (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

History of Violence

Random House presents the audiobook edition of History of Violence by Edouard Louis, read by Joseph Kloska. The radical and urgent new novel from the author of The End of Eddy I met Reda on Christmas Eve 2012. I was going home after a meal with friends, at around four in the morning. He approached me in the street, and finally I invited him up to my apartment. He told me the story of his childhood and how his father had come to France, having fled Algeria. We spent the rest of the night together, talking, laughing. At around 6 o'clock, he pulled out a gun and said he was going to kill me. He insulted me, strangled and raped me. The next day, the medical and legal proceedings began. History of Violence retraces the story of that night, and looks at immigration, dispossession, racism, desire and the effects of trauma in an attempt to understand, and to outline, a history of violence, its origins, its reasons and its causes.

Edouard Louis (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

Howard's End: A BBC Radio 4 full cast dramatisation

Spring 1905, England. When Helen Schlegel goes to stay at Howard's End - the country home of the Wilcox family, her own life, along with that of her sister Margaret, is changed forever. This is the tale of three families at the beginning of the twentieth century: the rich Wilcoxes, the gentle, idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts. Frequently cited as E. M. Forster's finest work, Howard's End brilliantly explores class warfare, conflict and the English character. This BBC dramatisation skilfully brings the classic novel to life.Starring John Hurt as the Narrator, Lisa Dillon as Margaret Schlegel, Jill Cardo as Helen Schlegel, Tom Ferguson as Tibby Schlegel, Alexandra Mathie as Aunt Juley, Malcolm Raeburn as Henry Wilcox, Ann Rye as Ruth Wilcox and Joseph Kloska as Charles Wilcox.

E.M. Forster (Author), , Alexandra Mathie, Ann Rye, Jill Cardo, John Hurt, Joseph Kloska, Lisa Dillon, Malcolm Raeburn, Tom Ferguson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF JANUARY 9, 1993, WHILE JEAN CLAUDE ROMAND WAS KILLING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, I WAS WITH MINE IN A PARENT-TEACHER MEETING... With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrère, begins his exploration of the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go. 'As a writer, Carrère is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on you when you attempt to pull away... You say: True crime and literature? I don't believe it. I say: Believe it' Junot Díaz 'Mesmerising' Sunday Telegraph 'Stunning' Evening Standard 'Unputdownable' Washington Post 'A masterpiece' New York Times

Emmanuel Carrère (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

The First Tour de France: Sixty Cyclists and Nineteen Days of Daring on the Road to Paris

The first Tour De France was a far cry from the polished international sporting event we see on television today. Organized by the financially free falling L'Auto magazine, the desperate editors thought that organizing a grand cycling tour was the only thing that could save their publication. But in 1903, cyclists weren't enthusiastic about what was pitched to them as a heroic race through roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to forty-four pounds, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant bribing unemployed laborers from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a blacksmith, a chimney sweep, and a wrestler. Through these characters backstories, Cossins paints a nuanced portrait of France in the early 1900's. The race itself is packed with mishaps and adventure-in part due to the fact that water was scarce at the time, so the men drank wine and beer throughout, often keeling over from their bicycles in a drunken stupor. There was no indication that a ramshackle cycling pack would draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes. But they did, and cycling would never be the same again.

Peter Cossins (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep: The Tale of the First Tour de France

Random House presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep by Peter Cossins, read by Joseph Kloska. Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, the first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair. Its riders included characters like Maurice "The White Bulldog" Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents were said to have swapped him for a round of cheese in order to smuggle him into France as a 14 year old, Hippolyte Aucouturier, who with his jersey of horizontal stripes and handlebar moustache looked like the villain from a Buster Keaton movie and amateurs like Jean Dargassies, a blacksmith who had no idea what he was letting himself in for. Dreamed up to revive a struggling newspaper, cyclists of the time weren't enthusiastic about this 'heroic' race through roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to twenty kilos, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant paying unemployed amateurs from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a chimney sweep and a circus acrobat. There was no indication that this ramshackle cycling pack would draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes. But they did, and all thanks to a marketing ruse, cycling would never be the same again. Acclaimed cycling writer Peter Cossins takes us through the inaugural Tour de France stage by stage to see where the greatest sporting event of all began.

Peter Cossins (Author), Joseph Kloska (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Joseph Kloska