Audiobooks narrated by William Birch (male Synthesized Voice)

Campaigns of World War II: The Eastern Front: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

This recording has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration. The conflict on the Eastern Front in World War II was colossal in both scale and intensity, as the two infamous dictators of the twentieth century – Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin – vied for supremacy in Eastern Europe. On 22 June 1941 it was Hitler's fateful decision to launch the largest invasion ever seen, Operation Barbarossa, when 138 German divisions attacked the Soviet Union. Four years later, some two million German and eleven million Russian soldiers had ben killed in the course of their struggle, and names like Stalingrad and Kursk had been burnt into the world's consciousness. The Eastern Front is a detailed account of this epic clash, the greatest continuous land battle in history. The book explores in detail the state of the German and Soviet armies in 1941, and the planning and preparation of both sides for the German attack. Campaigns covered include Operation Barbarossa, the rapid German advance on Moscow and the first Soviet winter offensive in 1941–42. The race for the Caucasian oilfields in Operation Blue, as the 1942 German campaign was known, is also described, as is the fight for Stalingrad and the infamous destruction of the German Sixth Army, the Soviet success in early 1943, and the resultant German counter at Kharkov. The book details Hitler's last major offensive in the summer of 1943 that led to the world's largest tank battle at Kursk, and the significant Soviet victories that followed, with Operation Bagration in 1944 capturing huge numbers of German prisoners. Finally, the book looks at the Soviet advance onto German soil, the capture of Berlin itself and the subsequent suicide of Adolf Hitler as shells rained on his bunker. Written by three leading military historians, the Eastern Front is a superb history of the cataclysmic struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Duncan Anderson (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bloody History of London: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

John D. Wright (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

Greek Myths: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

This recording has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration. Plato dismissed Greek mythology as ‘old wives’ chatter’ but such chatter, from the Minotaur to the Trojan Horse, from Zeus to Prometheus, Heracles to the Argonauts, has been of immense influence for thousands of years. Those tales of deities and beasts, and of heroes and villains, must have possessed some quality to have lasted so long. Thousands of years on, we still refer in our every day lives to Achilles, Pandora and Narcissus. From Hades in the Underworld to Pegasus in flight, Greek Myths & Legends is an accessible introduction to the world of such characters as the Titans, Aphrodite and Poseidon. The book tells the story of Greek mythology from its creation myths and gods to its tales of mortals. Along the way we see the development of the pantheon of the major Greek deities, the dynastic struggles among the early gods, the creation of the Underworld and we learn how Ariadne, Medea and Perseus, among many others, fit into the mythic universe. The book also examines how Greek myths have survived in written texts, ceramics, art and architecture, and the legacy of Greek mythology in Roman culture and the Middle Ages, as well as its revival in the Renaissance and its enduring appeal today. Greek Myths & Legends is an engaging, highly informative exploration of a fascinating world and will appeal to anyone interested in legends and ancient cultures.

Martin J. Dougherty (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

Children of the Benares: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

This recording has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration. When the passenger liner City of Benares sailed from Liverpool on Friday, 13 September 1940 she was carrying 90 evacuee children from the bombed cities of Britain, bound under a government-sponsored scheme for a safe haven in Canada. Her sinking by U-boat four days later, without warning, in total disregard of the plight of survivors and in defiance of international law, shocked and horrified the civilised world. Of 406 people on board 256 were lost — including, at a first count, 83 of the evacuee children. In Britain and the Commonwealth the reaction was one of righteous indignation, accompanied by an intense desire for retribution. Nor was the propaganda value neglected, a broadcast by King George VI the day after the news broke being clearly directed at neutral America. ‘The world,’ he said, ‘could have no clearer proof of the wickedness against which we fight than this foul deed.’ Suspicions subsequently arose, however, that the British authorities had quite as much to answer for as the Nazis. Parents who, despite many misgivings, had entrusted their children to the scheme when invasion threatened, began to ask questions when they learned that the promised naval escort had abandoned the convoy twenty-one hours before the Benares was sunk. Allegations that crew members had rushed the boats, that emergency equipment had failed, and that the whole voyage had been undertaken under the blight of racial prejudice, demanded a formal investigation. But somehow this was avoided, and the scandal was successfully hushed up. Children of the Benares is a vivid and poignant reconstruction of the disaster, as well as an investigation into what really happened behind the scenes at the Admiralty and the Ministry of Shipping. The result is a harrowing story of human fallibility and human survival.

Ralph Barker (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

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Adam's Breed: A Novel–Digitally Narrated Using a Synthesized Voice

Radclyffe Hall (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

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The Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

Donald Olson (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

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John Lennon: Life, Times and Assassination: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

In 1976 or 1977, “Lennon first started to dream about a stranger who asked for an album to be autographed then returned later, angry and with a loaded gun”. Who really killed John Lennon? John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono moved to New York in 1971, in part to escape the vitriol of the British press who blamed Ono for the breakup of their beloved Beatles. They had hoped to live quietly in America and raise their son Sean. But, just nine years later and three weeks after the release of his final album, Lennon was shot dead in the archway of his Manhattan apartment building by Mark Chapman. It is impossible to understate the extent of Lennon’s celebrity at that time and the shockwaves his slaying sent around the world. Chapman was swiftly tried and found guilty by the American courts as a lone wolf assassin, a Beatles fanatic with a grudge and a history of psychological problems. But was he? Who financed Chapman’s flight from Hawaii to execute the killing? In this meticulously researched study, British author Phil Strongman digs into Chapman’s background. He discusses the evidence for US agency involvement in the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and others and draws inescapable parallels with the death of John Lennon, whose political activism and high-profile support for the anti-Vietnam war movement had, by the late 1970s, put him firmly on the radar of the CIA and FBI. Forty years after the FBI and the CIA opened files on the ex Beatle, Strongman questions the facts behind the killing and goes beyond the realm of conspiracy theory, to leave the reader in little doubt as to the part played by covert forces in the assassination of one of the twentieth century’s most charismatic and influential men. This recording is presented by Lume Book and has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.

Phil Strongman (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Dark History of American Presidents: Digitally Narrated Using a Synthesized Voice

The office of the American President has evolved dramatically over the last 200 years, from George Washington's heroic posturing as leader of a renegade nation, to calculated cunning as commander of a nuclear superpower. This colourful inventory of presidential transgressions reveals that every modern scandal is the descendant of remarkably similar predecessors. Detailing the disgraces of all forty-four Presidents, from sexual skirmishes to CIA cover-ups, The Dark History of the American Presidents covers every dirty deed committed behind the White House fence, from financial profiteering and insider trading to illicit bugging of the opposition. Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy are all present, as are the more likely suspects such as Nixon. Running right up to the present and including the terms of Presidents Bush and Obama, The Dark History of the American Presidents also tells the story of a nation’s advancement: from post-Revolutionary days of anti-monarchy and slavery, through the bitter strife of internal wars, Reconstruction, boom and Depression, to her emergence onto the world stage as a superpower. Using reproductions of portraits in oil, period caricature and cartoons, as well as superbly-telling 20th century photojournalism, The Dark History of the American Presidents reveals the true face behind what has become the most powerful job in the world. This recording is presented by DeepZen Limited and has been digitally produced by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.

Micheal Kerrigan (Author), (male Synthesized Voice) William Birch, William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

Vikings: A History of the Norse People: Digitally Narrated Using a Synthesized Voice

Beginning in 789AD, the Vikings raided monasteries, sacked cities and invaded western Europe. They looted and enslaved their enemies. But that is only part of their story. In long boats they discovered Iceland and America (both by accident) and also sailed up the Seine to Paris (which they sacked). They settled from Newfoundland to Russia, founded Dublin and fought battles as far afield as the Caspian Sea. A thousand years after their demise, traces of the Vikings remain all the way from North America to Istanbul. They traded walruses with Inuits, brought Russian furs to Western Europe and took European slaves to Constantinople. Their graves contain Arab silver, Byzantine silks and Frankish weapons. In this accessible audiobook, the whole narrative of the Viking story is examined from the eighth to the eleventh centuries. Arranged thematically, Vikings: A History of the Norse People examines the Norsemen from exploration to religion to trade to settlement to weaponry to kingdoms to their demise and legacy. But today questions remain: what prompted the first Viking raids? What stopped their expansion? And how much of the tales of murder, rape and pillage is myth? Vikings: A History of the Norse People is an expertly written account of a people who have long captured the popular imagination. This recording is presented by DeepZen Limited and has been digitally produced by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.

Martin J. Dougherty (Author), (male Synthesized Voice) William Birch, William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

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Goodnight, Sorry for Sinking You: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

Ralph Barker (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

Illusion: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

Stephanie Elmas (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Reluctant Cannibals: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice

This recording is presented by Legend Press and has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration. When a group of food-obsessed academics at Oxford University form a secret dining society, they happily devote themselves to investigating exotic and forgotten culinary treasures. Until a dish is suggested that takes them all by surprise. Professor Arthur Plantagenet has been told he has a serious heart problem and decides that his death should not be in vain. He sets out his bizarre plan in a will, that on his death, tests the loyalty of his closest friends, the remaining members of this exclusive dining society. A dead Japanese diplomat, police arrests and charges of grave robbing. These are just some of the challenges these culinary explorers must overcome in tackling gastronomy’s ultimate taboo: cannibalism.

Ian Flitcroft (Author), William Birch (male Synthesized Voice) (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by William Birch (male Synthesized Voice)