Audiobooks narrated by William Hootkins

Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon & other adventures: A BBC Radio Collection

The godfather of the hard-boiled detective novel, Dashiell Hammett is widely acknowledged as one of America's greatest mystery writers. This collection brings together the BBC radio adaptations of his works for the first time, including the iconic The Maltese Falcon featuring his most famous character: Sam Spade. The Maltese Falcon San Francisco, 1928. When his partner is murdered on an assignment, private detective Sam Spade is drawn into a dangerous case involving a treacherous femme fatale and the priceless black statuette of a falcon... Tom Wilkinson and Jane Lapotaire star in this thrilling dramatisation of Hammett's most famous novel. Secret Agent X-9 New York, 1934, and Secret Agent X-9 is about to embark on his most deadly mission yet. Falsely accused of murder, he struggles to stay one step ahead of the law in his relentless pursuit of his arch enemy, 'The Top'. Dramatised from a comic strip co-created by Dashiell Hammett, this tale of mystery, murder and mayhem stars Stuart Milligan, Connie Booth and William Hootkins. Nightmare Town Arriving in the desert boom town of Izzard, Arizona, sharp-edged tough guy Steve Threefall meets the beautiful, terrified Nova Vallance - and encounters danger, intrigue and a dark mystery... Read by Stuart Milligan. The Man Who Killed Dan Odams An escaped killer fleeing cross-country stumbles upon an isolated farm in Montana, inhabited by a woman and her young son... This mysterious and brooding noir western is read by Stuart Milligan. The Maltese Falcon Sam Spade - Tom Wilkinson Brigid O'Shaughnessy - Jane Lapotaire Mr Gutman - Peter Vaughan Joel Cairo - Nickolas Grace Effie - Mia Soteriou Miles Archer - William Hope Iva - Liza Ross Wilmer - Peter Acre Tom Polhaus - Norman Jones Lt Dundy - Harry Towb DA Bryan - Don Fellows Newspaperman - Robin Summers Taxi driver - Keith Edwards Man with key - Arnold Diamond Dramatised by Michael Bakewell Directed by Jane Morgan First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 December 1984 Secret Agent X-9 X-9 - Stuart Milligan Grace Powers - Connie Booth The Top - William Hootkins Evelyn Powers - Rachel Power Deacon/Alden Powers - Peter Marinker Matthew/Steward/Luke - Michael John Paliotti Captain Brady/Bartholomew - John Guerrasio Jude - Bruce McGregor Cop 1 - Clive Rowe Harper-Carp - Kerry Shale Waitress/Sister Agnes - Miranda Pleasance Other parts played by the cast Dramatised by Mark Brisenden from the comic strip created by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond Produced by Chris Wallis First broadcast BBC Radio 5 Live, 1-22 January 1994 Nightmare Town Read by Stuart Milligan Abridged by Neville Teller Produced by Elizabeth Allard First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5-8 November 2001 The Man Who Killed Dan Odams Read by Stuart Milligan Abridged by Neville Teller Produced by Elizabeth Allard First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 November 2001

Dashiell Hammett (Author), Connie Booth, Jane Lapotaire, Stuart Milligan, Tom Wilkinson, William Hootkins (Narrator)

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The Poetry of America

America - The Poetry Of - An Introduction. Poetry can sometimes be elusive, the real meaning layered beneath another. In this volume American Poets give voice to their Nation, their hopes and aspirations. Whitman, Emerson and Dickinson are joined by Poe, Holmes, Dunbar and others to pleasure our ears and minds with a rambling stroll through their works. It doesn't define America but it captures her mood and flavours her soul of these early times in the American dream.

Edd Mcnair, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Cullen Bryant (Author), Lorelei King, Richard Mitchley, William Dufris, William Hootkins (Narrator)

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The Poetry of Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was an immense talent. And a prodigious one at that. Associated with the Free Verse movement his poems are usually on the longer side. Iconic works such as Leaves Of Grass divided opinion on their publication. Some argued it was obscene others such as Ralph Waldo Emerson rallied to his cause. Whitman was born on May 31st 1819 on Long Island. By the age of 11 his schooling was finished and he embarked on a series of jobs that eventually led to various newspaper editorships. He began to write poetry in the 1840s and in 1855 published his first of many versions of Leaves Of Grass. Thereafter he wrote solidly until his death on March 26, 1892. He is buried in Camden, New Jersey. Whitman wrote that "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it."

Walt Whitman (Author), Gideon Wagner, Richard Mitchley, William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Psycho

Robert Bloch (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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On The Waterfront

Terry Malloy is a hoodlum, caught between the beginnings of a conscience and the racketeers for whom he works. Katie is t hat conscience. But she is torn between her love for him and her belief he killed her brother. Together with a slum-reared Catholic priest, Father Pete Barry, Terry and Katie take on the gangster-ridden waterfront unions of Johnnie Friendly. After writing the award-winning film of On The Waterfron, Budd Schulberg developed the story of Terry Malloy into a novel. An exceptionally talented and experienced reader, William Hootkins captures the mood of this stark, realistic, story of brutality, corruption and tender love with great force and energy.

Budd Schulberg (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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East of the Mountains

A triumphant return by the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, as an attempted suicide becomes a life-enhancing diversion.Following the death of his wife Rachel and diagnosis of his own medical condition, Dr Ben Givens left his home in Seattle - heading east with his Winchester and hunting dogs in tow - not intending to return. It was to be a journey to the verges of the Columbia River, where he had entered the world and had decided he would now take his leave of it. What transpired was anything but the journey he anticipated.Instead, Ben's perspective shifts as his intended exit transforms into an eye-opening, life-enhancing diversion, as David Guterson's celebrated and involving prose unravels the mysteries and reveals the power of the human spirit even as it ebbs, in this moving and action-filled drama set against an unforgettable landscape.

David Guterson (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Moby-Dick

Penguin Classics presents Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actor William Hootkins. 'The frail gunwales bent in, collapsed, and snapped, as both jaws, like an enormous shears, sliding further aft, bit the craft completely in twain...' Moby-Dick is one of the most expansive feats of imagination in the whole of literature: the mad, raging, Shakespearean tale of Captain Ahab's insane quest to kill a giant white whale that has taken his leg, and upon which he has sworn vengeance, at any cost. A creation unlike any other, this is an epic story of fatal monomania and the deepest dreams and obsessions of mankind. Part of a series of vintage recordings taken from the Penguin Archives. Affordable, collectable, quality productions - perfect for on-the-go listening.

Herman Melville (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Moby Dick

The abridged downloadable audiobook edition of Herman Melville's epic tale of madness, obsession and society itself, Moby Dick. Read by the late actor William Hootkins. Captain Ahab is an eerily compelling madman who focuses his distilled hatred and suffering - and that of generations before him - into the pursuit of a creature as vast, dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. More than just a novel of adventure, this is a haunting and important social commentary populated with several of the most enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith and the nature of perception.

Herman Melville (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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White Fang

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Jack London's haunting classic, White Fang, read by the actor William Hootkins, star of Star Wars, Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, White Fang - half-dog, half-wolf - is the only animal in the litter to survive. He soon learns the harsh laws of nature, yet buried deep inside him are the distant memories of affection and love. Will this fiercely independent creature of the wild learn to trust man again?

Jack London, William Hootkins (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Moby Dick

'Call me Ishmael' Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write 'a mighty book about a mighty theme' and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of the Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history and a mass of information about whaling through the ages. This epic story, here presented in unabridged form, receives an equally epic reading from the outstanding American actor William Hootkins.

Herman Melville (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Hiawatha

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick is one of the great epics in all of literature. Captain Ahab's hunt for the white whale drives the narrative at a relentless pace, while Ishmael's meditations on whales and whaling, on the sublime indifference of nature, and on the grimy physical details of the extraction of oil provide a reflective counterpoint to the headlong idolatrous quest. Sometimes read as a terrifying study of monomania or as a critical inquiry into the effects of reducing life to symbols, Moby-Dick also offers colorful and often comic glimpses of life aboard a whaling ship.

Herman Melville (Author), William Hootkins (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by William Hootkins