Stream Popular Full Audiobooks in History, Europe

Storm’s Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney by Peter Marshall

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/578806 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/578806] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Storm’s Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney Author: Peter Marshall Narrator: Kenny Blyth Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 22 hours 44 minutes Release date: April 11, 2024 Genres: Europe Publisher's Summary: 'A surprising page-turner, full of humour and startling details' THE TIMES 'If I read a better history this year, I will be lucky' TOM HOLLAND 'An astonishing tour de force’ SPECTATOR From Peter Marshall, winner of the 2018 Wolfson Prize, Storm’s Edge is a new history of the Orkney Islands that delves deep into island politics, folk beliefs and community memory on the geographical edge of Britain. Peter Marshall was born in Orkney. His ancestors were farmers and farm labourers on the northern island of Sanday – where, in 1624, one of them was murdered by a witch. In an expansive and enthralling historical account, Marshall looks afresh at a small group of islands that has been treated as a mere footnote, remote and peripheral, and in doing so invites us to think differently about key events of British history. With Orkney as our point of departure, Marshall traverses three dramatic centuries of religious, political and economic upheaval: a time when what we think of as modern Scotland, and then modern Britain, was being forged and tested. Storm's Edge is a magisterial history, a fascinating cultural study and a mighty attestation to the importance of placing the periphery at the centre. Britain is a nation composed of many different islands, but too often we focus on just one. This book offers a radical alternative, encouraging us to reorient the map and travel with Peter Marshall through landscapes of forgotten history.

The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/574469 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/574469] to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts Author: Christopher de Hamel Narrator: Christopher de Hamel, John Lee Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 25 minutes Release date: November 14, 2023 Genres: Europe Publisher's Summary: * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * The acclaimed author of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts introduces us to the extraordinary keepers and companions of medieval manuscripts over a thousand years of history The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years: a monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe, a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America—all of them members of what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscripts Club. This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel’s unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion that crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been. In 1850 (or thereabouts) John Ruskin bought his first manuscript “at a bookseller’s in a back alley.” This was his reaction: “The new worlds which every leaf of this book opened to me, and the joy I had in counting their letters and unravelling their arabesques as if they had all been of beaten gold—as many of them were—cannot be told.” The members of de Hamel’s club share many such wonders, which he brings to us with scholarship, style and a lifetime’s experience.

Mosquito: The RAF's Legendary Wooden Wonder and its Most Extraordinary Mission by Rowland White

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/568212 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/568212] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Mosquito: The RAF's Legendary Wooden Wonder and its Most Extraordinary Mission Author: Rowland White Narrator: Roy Mcmillan Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 29 minutes Release date: October 12, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 2 of Total 1 Genres: Europe Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. Built of lightweight wood, powered by two growling Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, impossibly aerodynamic, headspinningly fast and armed to the teeth, the de Havilland Mosquito was the war-winning wonder that should never have existed: the aircraft the RAF didn't think it wanted then couldn't do without. Flying on operations barely eighteen months after a single prototype was ordered off the drawing board, it was the answer to its pilots' prayers: a stunningly versatile warplane capable of leaving the Luftwaffe in its wake to attack when and where the enemy was least expecting it. Excelling as a spyplane, night-fighter and pathfinder for Bomber Command's heavies the Mossie's reputation was cemented by a series of daredevil bombing raids across occupied Europe, including on Berlin itself, where only surprise, speed and precision could ensure success. So when Churchill's top secret Special Operations Executive needed to destroy the Gestapo HQ in the centre of downtown Copenhagen to prevent a devastating Nazi last stand that might prolong the war for many months, there was only one machine for the job - the Mosquito. This is the story of that legendary aircraft told through that one impossible mission. Like Rowland White's previous books, Mosquito is an unputdownable mix of utterly compelling storytelling, incredible human stories and fascinating technological detail, which sheds never-before-told light on a pivotal mission that helped bring the war to its bloody and brutal close. ©2023 Rowland White (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Princess Alexandra by Helen Cathcart

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/603444 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/603444] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Princess Alexandra Series: Part of Royal House of Windsor Author: Helen Cathcart Narrator: Lorna Bennett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 57 minutes Release date: September 5, 2023 Genres: Europe Publisher's Summary: Born on Christmas Day, 1936, Princess Alexandra's birth was almost overshadowed by the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII. Yet public affection for this new addition to the Royal Family has only grown during a lifetime of dedicated royal service. In this biography, Helen Cathcart chronicles the first thirty years of Princess Alexandra's life, from the tragic death of her father when she was just five years old to her wartime childhood at Badminton living with her grandmother Queen Mary, through to schooldays at Heathfield, bridesmaid duties for her first cousin Queen Elizabeth II, and early career working as a nurse. Admired for her style and devotion to royal duty, we accompany Princess Alexandra as she overcomes her youthful self-consciousness to carry out a wide range of royal and official engagements, including her first solo overseas tour to Australia at the age of twenty-two in 1959. We also witness the burgeoning romance between the princess and Angus Ogilvy, and their resplendent wedding at Westminster Abbey in 1963. Princess Alexandra is an exceptionally detailed biography of a loving daughter, wife, and mother, as well as a popular member of the Royal Family.

The Duchess of Kent by Helen Cathcart

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/603435 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/603435] to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Duchess of Kent Series: Part of Royal House of Windsor Author: Helen Cathcart Narrator: Lorna Bennett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 34 minutes Release date: July 25, 2023 Genres: Europe Publisher's Summary: In this detailed biographical study of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, Helen Cathcart tells an enchanting story of a Yorkshire soldier squire's daughter who grew up to become an admired and popular member of the Royal Family. In this intimate and illuminating account, Cathcart charts the first forty years of the Duchess's life, from her birth during a snowstorm at the family home, Hovingham Hall, and wartime childhood through to schooldays at Castle Howard and early career working in a children's home. We also learn of her first meeting with Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, and of the affectionate friendship that matured into a royal romance. In The Duchess of Kent we follow the Duchess from Hovingham Hall and Coppins to Hong Kong and Germany as an Army officer's wife. We discover the deep veins of community service in her family, and the author reveals the source of the Duchess of Kent's wide popularity.